


Oceans Away

by The_Renegade



Series: All's Fair In Love And War [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alcohol, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assassins & Hitmen, Awkwardness, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Cheese, Crime Fighting, Dad Spy, Drunken Kissing, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Exploration, Explosions, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fight For Me, Fights, Fist Fights, Fluff and Angst, Government Agencies, Gun Violence, Guns, How Do I Tag, Hydra (Marvel), Hydra Grant Ward, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Ice, Ice Powers, Ignoring Canon, Inhuman Powers, Inhumans (Marvel), Inhumans - Freeform, Kissing, Lost Love, Love, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Mutant Powers, Oceans away, Oral Sex, Outer Space, Post-HYDRA Reveal, Psychological Torture, Renegade - Freeform, Revenge, Rough Kissing, Rough Sex, SHIELD, Sad, Science Bros, Science Fiction, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Sexual Tension, Siblings, Sleeping Together, Snow and Ice, Superheroes, Tenderness, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Time Travel, Torture, Vaginal Sex, Water, Water Powers, Waterbending & Waterbenders, can't sleep, lost family, quake - Freeform, spys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2020-05-12 12:51:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 36
Words: 57,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Renegade/pseuds/The_Renegade
Summary: The Third Book in the series All's Fair In Love and War, Oceans Away takes us to season three of Agents of Shield. Agent Jemma Simmons has been whisked away via Alien Stone to a new planet, and the Shield Agents are hellbent on bringing her back, especially Agent Leo Fitz. Perhaps so hellbent that he hasn't realized he's left his actual girlfriend, Agent Asia Monroe, high and dry. Focusing her entire life on other missions, not allowing herself to think that Leo really does have feelings for the missing Jemma Simmons, her powers are growing, but her feelings are trapped. And what about Grant Ward? The man who stole away her sister? The Agents definitely haven't seen the last of him, and now, he's after one thing. Revenge.





	1. Chapter 1

_Three months ago_

The room was dark, grainy, with a little bit of sunlight filtering in, barely making an impression through the amount of dust, filtering and dancing through the air. Asia Monroe, Agent of Shield, lay on the thin cot beneath her for a moment, unmoving, simply taking in her surroundings. She didn't want anyone to know she was awake yet, not until she figured out where she was and why she was here. And why the fuck her head hurt so badly. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the pain, and the musty scents of dust, and trying to feel for anything at all, anything familiar. She stretched her senses out, feeling for any bit of water, the water that composed a human body, that she could.

Before she even got the chance to do so, a door creaked slowly open. Asia forced herself to take slow, measured breaths, not wanting to give away that she had woken up quite yet. Not that she would even get the chance. "So, you're awake," a familiar, deep voice spoke, a weight touching the edge of the bed as a man sat down. "How's your head? They had you pretty messed up in there."

The brunette slowly opened her eyes, the jig was up anyways, to see Clint Barton, wearing all black, sitting at the foot of her bed. "Clint? What are you doing..here? Where is here, by the way?" She asked all at once, trying to prop herself up, but a blazing pain raced through her head before she could do so.

"Ehh, you probably shouldn't try and do that just yet. You're going to be pretty out of it for a bit. What do you remember?" Clint asked her, brow furrowing as he looked down at her. 

Asia tried to think about it, tried to remember where she was, what she had been doing. Why was she out with Clint? Where was Nat? Where was the rest of her usual team? Thoughts, inklings of them, started to slowly drift into her mind. They had been on a mission for....something? Whenever she tried to think about that it was like someone had cut the footage, there was nothing but empty black. "Mmm....Coulson sent us...you and me and Natasha out here, for, uh, for something?" She said, trying once more to sit up, rubbing at her left eye with the heel of her palm. "We're in Eastern Europe, I think? I guess it's hard to tell from in here but I'm....pretty sure that's where we were. Where are we?" 

"A little place called Hell. And, you've got that much right," Clint grinned, adjusting the curtain to let a little more light in for her, "Looks like the Red Room didn't fuck with your mind _too_ badly. Shame, now I'll still have to deal with your annoying jokes," his words were teasing, but there was still that intense look of studying her, making sure she was okay.

"The Red Room?" Asia asked groggily, the words causing her brain to ache when she tried to think about it. "What...what was I doing there? What were we doing?" 

"Deep undercover, Monroe. You were pretending to be their latest initiate. Was going great, till they clearly caught wind of what we were doing," Clint sighed, shaking his head. "I should have done something more. Something...." he looked like he wanted to punch something. "They had started a basic mind-wipe on you. Thankfully, I got there in time. You should, hopefully, be back in tip top shape shortly."

"What about Nat? Where is she? Is she okay?" Asia asked, finally managing to sit all of the way upright. If she was hurt, Nat should be here. She always was.

"Calm down, kiddo, she's fine," Clint said, standing up and placing a pillow behind Asia's back. "She's just doing a little bit of...clean up. Eliminating the rest of the Room's operatives who were there, getting the kids out safely. She'll be back soon, I'm sure. Until then...want some soup or something?"

On queue, her stomach growled. "Yes, please," Asia muttered, her head still pounding. What else had she forgotten? She didn't like the idea of being unmade. Hazily, she reached for the phone on the wooden table beside her cot, looking at the time. 17:39. The man on the background of her screen, she knew him instantly. Leo Fitz. At least she hadn't forgotten the people who mattered. At least it was just the details of this mission.

But, unfortunately, she did remember the familiar ache of her screen, empty of all messages. He hadn't reached out to her, not once, not to make sure she was okay, to make sure he was alive. He had been far too busy as of late, too busy for her, too busy for anyone. He spent all day, every day, in the Lab, in the basement, in the Library, trying to find any sort of hint as to what happened to Jemma Simmons. And his leads were starting to run dry, just like their relationship was starting to run dry. 

It felt like he hardly paid her time of day anymore. They hadn't had sex in weeks, and he barely kissed her ever. She got it, he was busy, dedicated, wanting to make sure that their teammate got home alive. But she couldn't shake the feeling it had _something_ to do with the grand confession of her emotions that Jemma had made to Leo literally days before her disappearance.

And she understood it, she did, she really really did. The desire to save a friend. She got that. She felt it too. Of course, she wanted Jemma back. But did she have to lose him along with it? That hurt more than her fucking head did right now. She looked over at Clint, her friend, her partner, her mentor. He seemed to have a fine relationship with Harper, even when he was gone for a long time. How could he make it so easy?

The shirtless man, the assassin turned Avenger turned part-time Avenger turned dad, gave her one last grin, before disappearing out the door he had come through, presumably off to make the soup. God, she wanted food. And she wanted to sleep, more. Her body begged for it. She let the phone drop back to the table, pretty damn sure she wouldn't be getting any messages on it any time soon. 

She would sleep, she would eat, and then they could fly back to base and give a debrief to Coulson, if he was around and not too busy. And she was sure Daisy would want to see her. They had been up to their ears in work lately, with the Terrigen getting out into the ecosystem, causing an influx of people to turn Inhuman. They were pretty sure it had to do with the crystals dropped into the ocean, and somehow being consumed by fish. Most of the people who had turned had been taking Fish Oil pills, so it seemed like a likely answer. Too bad their best scientists were otherwise occupied.

As she leaned back down to let herself sleep, she found that the desire to rest was gone. Of course. Her mind was moving far too much now. Slowly, she swung her legs one by one over the edge of the bed. She wanted her ice bath. Back at HQ, she had started using an ice bath to absorb and heal her wounds. It also made her feel stronger, much stronger. She had found that, just as her body was able to control water, it was also able to make a space underneath the water for her to breath, separate the water from the oxygen. Sometimes, she even slept in there. She looked down at her arms, covered in green sleeves, and slowly rolled them up, revealing the bruises beneath. Yea, she could use an ice bath right about now. 

Cautiously, she stumbled out of the makeshift bedroom and into the equally dimly lit hall of whatever shack they had rented for this mission. The cement floor was cool and clammy against her bare feet. She could hear the sound of water boiling on a stove just a door away, feel it bubbling if she tried hard enough, smell the soup in the pot, smell tea that Clint was making. She pushed into the kitchen, wincing at the bright light coming from the bulb above.

"God, whatever the hell they did feels like a hangover times a thousand," she groaned, dropping herself into one of the wooden kitchen chairs, feeling it groan beneath her weight. "Soup almost ready? I could kill for food right now." 

"Funny part is, I'm pretty sure you would kill for food," Clint joked. "About two more minutes, so just hold your horses. Nat will be back soon, and then we can all fly home." 

The two minutes went by quickly, and, in silence, the two Shield agents slurped their meal, waiting for their third member to arrive back safely.

And she did, safely and silently, which was quite a Natasha thing to do. They hadn't even heard her enter until she spoke. "What, ate all the good food without me while I'm out there cleaning up after you two?" Her tone was teasing, lighthearted. The redhead was still wearing her black suit when she walked into the kitchen, hugging Asia tightly from behind. "I'm glad they didn't hurt you too badly. Next time, I won't let them lay a finger on you." She said seriously, and Asia believed it. There were few people Natasha hated more in the world than the Red Room and their operatives.

"It's okay, it was worth it," Asia shrugged in reply. "If we were able to shut down one of their locations, then it was all worth it. Did you get the kids out?" 

"Yea, to a Shield monitored orphanage," Natasha replied, setting her guns down onto the counter and pouring herself her own bowl of soup. "It may not be the best life, for now, but it's a hell of a lot better than what would have happened to them there. Plus, I talked to Tony and he's going to make a donation, help spruce things up a bit." She shoveled the soup into her mouth, and Asia took this as a sign that she didn't really want to talk about it anymore. The brunette nodded, going back to eating her own food.

"Well, now that we're all here and the jobs done, what do you guys say? Shall we blow this lame excuse for a Popsicle stand?" Clint asked, putting his bowl in the sink and rinsing it for a moment. 

Nat and Asia looked at each other, before looking back at Clint and both nodding enthusiastically. 

"That's what I thought," Clint grinned. "Plus, I'm sure Monroe here is excited to see that boy whose waiting for her back at base," Clint winked at her, causing Asia to roll her eyes and plaster a smile to her face. As good as spies as the two were, Asia had gotten pretty good at lying to both of them, at least when it came to her feelings. Yea, she was excited to sleep in her own bed. But she was pretty sure no one was there waiting for her.


	2. Chapter 2

_Present day_

"We've got another, Asia, time to wake up," The speakers inside her tub blasted Daisy's voice around her, as her friend knocked on the tank above her. Asia opened her eyes from beneath the watery surface, chunks of ice floating around her, keeping the water cold and her body colder.There was a slight twinge of annoyance she felt at first, being woken from slumber, but she also knew she had work to do. Sighing, bubbles bursting out around her beneath the surface, she rolled to the right, tapping twice on a small green button on the side of the large, white, submersible tub. With a hiss and a waft of steam, the lid of the tub retracted, allowing Asia to sit up, keeping most of her body beneath water while Daisy handed her a robe, turning away and allowing Asia to climb out of the water and wrap her bare body in the plush, white robe, drying herself off. 

"Good morning, sunshine," Daisy greeted with an eyeroll, tucking a strand of her short, cropped hair behind her ear. The cut had happened sometime after her father had left, while Asia was out with Strike Team Delta. It looked good on her. "How was your bath?"

"Good, as always," Asia rolled her eyes, padding over to a closet on the side of the Zephyr, the replacement for the Bus. She pulled it open, revealing several copies of Asia's standard uniform, a black, tight jumpsuit, almost like Natasha's, with veins of blue light blue running over it, providing a constant flow over water over her body. With Daisy's head still turned, Asia dropped the robe and pulled on her underwear, then the specially designed suit. "What's on the table today?" 

"Well, it's been all over the news, so that's why we were called in. Some guy causing a disruption downtown, though it doesn't look like its intentional," Daisy explained, clicking on a TV screen for her to see. Downtown Seattle, or so she thought, with helicopters searching the roads. There was smoke rising out of the streets. “Hope you’re feeling juiced up,” Daisy nodded at the screen. “We’re about to touch down. Mack and Hunter will join us.” 

Asia stretched her arms above her head, then reached down and touched her toes, before straightening to look up at Daisy. “You know I’m always ready to save another one of us, especially a newbie.” She remembered what it was like to be in that position, and she often thought about how nice it would have been to have someone there who knew how to get through it.

“Good,” Daisy looked over at her friend, at that slightly lost look in her eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was something about the baths that made her so tired, or if it was the whole Leo/Jemma situation (though she had a feeling it was the latter of the two). 

“I’m gonna go check on Hunter,” Asia said with a sigh, heading towards the cockpit where she knew the other agent would be, bringing them down for a light landing before swapping out with another agent to take over flying.As she had expected, Hunter was sitting there, staring out at the city in front of them as their cloaking kicked in. There was an absentminded look on his face.

"What's got you bothered today?" Asia asked, flopping herself down on the co-pilot's seat beside her friend, gazing over at him. She had spent enough time with Hunter these past few months that she could read him without issue. 'Like a book,' Natasha would say.

"Nothing more than the usual, love," Hunter replied, his gaze flicking over to her suit for a moment. By the usual, he meant what always seemed to be bothering him, being an adult in his low thirties living the single life, flying another plane on another day to go help another person. He meant the monotony of his life, a thing she understood. And, he meant the loneliness. "What about you, Ice Queen? Noticed you've been soaking in your ice bucket an awful lot recently." He was right, she had been.

She sighed, shaking her head, looking out the side window for a moment. "You noticed that, didn't you? How very spy-like," she quipped right back, flashing him a small smile. "Just the usual for me too, _love_ " she teased, using his own words back to him. He looked at her, nodding, fully understanding everything she was thinking and feeling.

"Well, your soapbox time is running short, Monroe, we're about to touch down," Hunter teased right back, slowly lowering them down towards their touchdown spot. 

"I'm not on a soapbox," Asia rolled her eyes, climbing out of the seat, but giving Hunter a quick hug around the shoulders from behind. "I was here to check on you, obviously."

"Yea, yea, yea," Hunter rolled his eyes as she started to wake away. "Oi, love!" he called out back over his shoulder before she completely disappeared. "I know how shit this can all be. If you ever need someone to scratch that itch, you come find me." He flashed her a wink, laughing. Asia shook her head and walked off, back to find Daisy and get strapped in. It was work time.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Think that Black Ops team is here again, already?" Asia asked as they stepped out of the Quinnjet that had detached from , Hunter and Mack strapping into their bullet proof vests.

"They've gotten the jump on us every other time," Daisy sighed, shaking her hair out, looking off down the street. "Don't see why this time would be any different." The frustration that laced her voice was apparent, straining behind her words. The difficulty of their task was starting to wear on her, unsurprisingly so. 

"As long as we get there first, that's all that matters," Asia looked at her friend, reaching out and grabbing her hand to squeeze it. The two women smiled at each other, then dropped hands, marching down the street, past the stopped cars and the police lines. 

"They're cornering him down that alley!" Hunter shouted, pointing up the street towards a group of men in all black, heavily clad in protective gear and carrying assault rifles. They were slowly stepping towards an alley, guns raised. 

Asia and Daisy looked at each other, and without a second thought, they ran forward, hands up. As Asia shoved her palms out and forward, a huge wave of water gushed out from her, powering down the roadway, filling up the entire width of the road, from building to building. The wave took out two of the men at the waist. Daisy shot out individual shots of quakes towards the other two, sending them flying backwards. Teamwork at it's finest, they easily eliminated the threat in the situation. That was the one nice thing about facing these Black Ops guys, whoever they were. No powers, nothing but men with guns who always underestimated two women with no guns at all. It always worked in their favor, and they kept making the same mistake over and over again.

Looking at one another once more, they jogged towards the alley way, Mack and Hunter following closely. Mack stopped at the entrance to the alley, setting down a silver tube that immediately began to produce smoke out both ends, concealing them behind a wall of white and grey. Hunter jogged past all of them, even past the new Inhuman man, who was cowering behind some wooden pallets, scared, staring at Asia and Daisy in both fear and awe. As Hunter moved past, he set a small disk with a red button in the center on the ground, pressing the button. "You're gonna want to step out of the way mate," he said to the man.

"Hey, hey, what's your name?" Daisy asked calmly, holding up a hand to show they came peacefully, trying to urge the man out from behind the pallets.

"It's, uh, Joey. Joey Gutierrez," The man managed to stutter out, looking back and forth between the two women, unsure of how to proceed. Who were these people? What was happening to him? Could these people helped him? They sure seemed like the better option over the guys with the guns who had been screaming at him. 

"Joey, it's great to meet you," Asia offered him a smooth smile, "We're from Shield, and we're here to help," she explained, trying to make it make as much sense as possible. 

"We're here for your protection," Daisy continued on, nodding along with what they were saying. 

Suddenly, Mack backed into the alley, pistol raised. "There's more coming, guys. First unit is down, you two got the message across pretty quick. But that won't stop them for long."

The panic in Joey's eyes flooded back, as he looked at Mack, then back over his shoulders at Hunter, then back towards Daisy and Asia, his breath starting to come rapidly.

"Hey, Joey, Joey," Daisy said, trying to gain the man's complete attention back. "Stay with me. I know you're scared, I know there's a lot going on right now, but we're here to help. We're the only ones who can help you, but you have to let us help you." She had gotten rather good at the speech, she used it pretty often in these situations. 

"We've been through this, both of us," Asia nodded, smiling over at Daisy for a moment before maintaining eye contact with Joey. "It might seem like your entire world has turned upside down, and it will. It makes sense that it does. But we got through this, and you will, too." She tried to use her most calm and even voice possible, keeping a steady, what she hoped was comforting gaze.

"You two...you..you were the ones, the ones who made, made the car and those...those men!" Joey pointed out at the street, putting the pieces together. These women were strong, scary strong. The kind of strong that could force him to do whatever they wanted him to. 

Suddenly, before anyone else could speak, a small, square, white room shot down out of the sky, from the Zephyr waiting high above. The small room was specially designed by Shield scientists for each Inhuman, able to tailor towards their unique powers until they were able to learn and control them. It rocketed down, then slowed when it neared the ground, touching down as the doors hissed open.

"Alright, Joey, time to go," Asia said, placing a hand on his back and leading him towards the white box. She could feel his apprehension over the whole thing and her gaze flicked back to Daisy for a moment. She was ready to force him in, if she had to, though that usually made things more difficult for the two of them later.

"Alright Joey, I know this is a lot, but right now you have little time and even fewer options," Daisy said, coming to Asia's other side to help escort Joey along. "Please, just go with it," she said as they gave him a bit of a push into the cube, the doors sliding shut.

"We'll be right there with you," Hunter nodded at the man through the glass, flashing that classic Hunter grin. As soon as he finished speaking, the rockets beneath the cube lit up, propelling the box, with Joey inside, back up into the sky. 

After it was out of sight, the four agents ducked out of the alley through the smoke, back over to their camouflaged Quinnjet, all piling inside. Once the ramp was sealed and Hunter and Asia were up in the front, they took flight, cruising along beside the box, using comms to let Joey know they were still there for him, still around. It felt good to say that. It felt good to have won.


	3. Chapter 3

The flight back to the base went quickly when Asia spent all her time buried under a sheet of icy water. It was nice, meditative. A good way to prep her for the inevitable return to base. The inevitable sadness that would fill her up to the brim when she entered her room and found it absolutely devoid of the man who was supposed to be her partner. 

It wasn't a rare sight for Asia to wake up alone these days. Whether Leo just _didn't sleep_ , or if he fell asleep in the Lab studying something, or if he wasn't even at base, her certainly wasn't in their bed. She went to bed cold, woke up colder. It was frustrating, draining. She didn't even really known if they were still together or not. There was no clarification, no hints. She didn't really know how to interpret this whole thing. She had never been in a situation like this one before (and presumably, most people hadn't, so she had no one to talk to, either).

It made her want to lay inside her tub forever until maybe he noticed that she, too, was struggling. She didn't want him to give up the cause, no, because she understood the importance of bringing Jemma home. But she also wanted him to realize she needed _something_ from him, whether or not it was love or it was a definitive answer. That was all she wanted. An answer. Did he still love her? Were they still a _they_? Or did he realize that what Jemma had said to him before she was swallowed up, that she had feelings for him, did he realize he felt the same? Those were the questions that pounded around inside her skull incessantly.

But that didn't mean she could just stop working. When they arrived back to the base, she climbed out of her tub, dried herself off, and put on a green tank top and tight, form fitting black pants. She slipped into a pair of high-heeled sneakers and combed her hair into a wavy ponytail. She had to go meet Daisy and Mack, and together they would all go interview Joey. Help break the news. This was always the hardest part, telling someone there old life was gone. 

Asia understood that feeling quite well, even if her life was ripped away from her at a much younger age. She understood having to completely rebuild, even as you rebuilt through the pain. She understood what it felt like most of all, to shove all that pain away, bury it back in the depths of your brain. So she got it, she understood the looks in the eyes of the new Inhumans when they were told they couldn't go back. Perhaps she wasn't the best at displaying her empathy, but she was trying. It was hard, so hard for her to be empathetic when, if she were to let her walls down, all of the sadness and hurt building up inside would come pouring out. 

So she blocked it in, just as she always did, walking briskly down the halls towards the elevator, glancing into the Lab as she passed by. No Leo Fitz in sight, just a bunch of Lab Techs, and Bobbi, wearing a long, white lab coat and glasses. The woman glanced up as Asia passed, her lips pressing into a thing line. Asia gave her a nod, like she always did, letting Bobbi know that she knew. She knew that the other agent was covering up for Leo's mysterious disappearances, coming up with an excuse here for there for why he wasn't here, why he wasn't _home_. And Bobbi knew that Asia disliked her for it. 

But Asia didn't have time for anything more than a simple nod. After all, she did actually have work to do. She hopped into the elevator and pressed the button for the lower basement levels, where they had constructed the containment rooms. Each room, white as bleach, was designed to be adapted to an individual Inhuman's powers, and keep them contained within the room. The room weren't all that bad, honestly. Sure, they were pretty bland, but they had TVs, a pretty spacious, comfortable bed, a wall that would turn into an image of somewhere else so you could pretend you were on a nice, little retreat. All in all, much better than where those other guys, the black ops elite folks, would probably put you. So overall, where Joey was being kept? Could be a lot worse. 

When the doors to the basement slid open, Mack and Daisy were already waiting there, Mack holding a clipboard, Daisy changed out of her suit and into a black tanktop and black skinny jeans. Daisy offered her a smile, to which Asia nodded back. 

"Come on, Frosty, put on a smile for the guy," Mack coaxed, using one of the many ice-themed nicknames he had given her (though Frosty seemed to be his favourite, followed closely behind by Elsa). Mack saw how hard she was taking the latest absence of the man Asia loved. He used to resent her for it, the way she had retreated from him, tried to allow him to be his own person. But after the year they had all spent together, he understood her better. The fear that she held clutched so tightly, the worry that everyone she cared for would inevitably leave or die. He could see the way it wore on her. He only wished there was something he could do to ease up the pain. 

Asia sighed, looking down at the floor for a moment. When her head turned back up to face them, a freakishly-believable smile was plastered to her cheeks. "Alright guys, lets go make sure he feels welcome!" she quipped, before dropping the smile and her lips falling to a flat line. "Is that good enough for going through the door?" 

Mack just stared at her for a moment, unsure of what to say. 

"Yea, that's good enough," Daisy piped up, shaking her head, making the mental note that maybe Doctor Garner should pay an extra visit to _her_ next time, make sure that she was doing okay. She knew her friend, and Asia was seriously being hit hard by the emotions recently. If she wouldn't talk about it with her, maybe therapy would have to do.

So it was time to do what they did. Mack hit a few buttons on the keypad outside the white door, and it slid open with a small his. Inside, Joey was sitting at the foot of the bed, staring down at his shoes. His head whirled up to look at them, eyes widening as a look of relief washed over his face for a moment. "You're here! I thought you had left...." he stood up, awkwardly taking a couple steps towards them. 

"Hey Joey," Daisy smiled, strutting a little bit closer to him, nodding at Asia to move along side her. "Mind if we come in?" She elbowed Asia secretly, and the brunette smiled over at Joey as well. Nice and welcoming, that was the two of them. 

"Well, you're in already," Joey shrugged, but a small hint of a smile crept across his lips. 

Daisy smirked, "Yea, you're not wrong...Well, this is our partner, Mack," She gestured to the big man behind the two of them. Being around Mack honestly made Asia and Daisy look so tiny. "We just wanted to talk with you. Check in, see how you're doing." 

"What, you're the muscle and they're the pretty welcoming party?" Joey asked Mack, raising an eyebrow at him in question, not entirely sure he believed how this situation was going. 

"Trust me," Mack chuckled, shaking his head, "They're the muscle, much more than I could ever bring." He glanced over at Daisy and Asia with appreciation, causing an actual smile to slip over Asia's lips for a moment. 

"So, how are you feeling?" Asia asked Joey, continuing the conversation forward, truly wanting to know the answer. He looked okay, right now, but he had also just been sitting in solitude for an hour or so. If that doesn't get someone calm, she wasn't sure what was. If Asia had been left in this room she'd probably have been meditating the entire time.

Joey sighed, clenching and unclenching his hands for a moment before looking up at Asia. "You want the real answer?" Asia nodded at him encouragingly. "Well, it feels a hell of a lot like I'm a stranger in my own body, who I hate. But I guess thanks for asking?" He shook his head. "It sucks."

"Well," Daisy sighed, "Like I got to briefly touch on before, this phenomenon is mostly -"

Joey cut her off, shaking his head, "Just lay it on me. I don't want any of this sugar coated stuff. The hard truth, I'm ready for it." He clasped his hands together, nodding at Daisy, then at Asia. 

Asia and Daisy looked at each other, raising eyebrows. That usually wasn't how this conversation went down. Asia nodded at Daisy to continue on then. No way out other than through. 

"Alright then, umm...There exists a small percentage of the global population with a dormant alien gene that has been mixed into their DNA for generations," Daisy explained very calmly, yet quickly. 

"There is a chemical compound that activates this gene when the body is exposed to it," Asia continued off of her partner. "This compound, called Terrigen, was recently released into the ecosystem. It's completely harmless to those without the dormant gene, but to those with it, it gives them inhuman abilities." 

Daisy nodded along with Asia, glad she was still able to share her portion of this speech, even though she was clearly feeling off. "And you, Joey, you are one of the first people with this gene, to come in contact with the Terrigen that has been released. That is what happened to you today." 

"So...you're saying I'm an alien?" Joey asked, looking a little skeptical, not that either of them blamed him. It was a lot to take on, all at once. 

"Well, part alien," Asia shrugged, "But yes, there is a part of you with alien genes. But you're not alone...." She took a deep breath, looking over at Daisy and smiling. Daisy reached over and squeezed her arm comfortingly. Asia turned back to Joey with a small grin, "We call ourselves Inhumans."

Joey didn't take that _super_ well, but most people didn't. He burst into cackles of laughter, bending over at the knees. He had to sit on the edge of the bed again to keep himself from falling over. "Wow, you really had me going there for a second. Shit!" He laughed again, clapping his hands together. "That'll be a great drinking story, once I get back home. My friends are going to die over that one." 

Mack sighed, stepping forward to try and make a voice of reason and get the man calm once more. "That's going to have to wait a little while longer." 

"What does that mean?" Joey asked, looking back and forth between the three of them, eyebrows raising slowly, a shade of worry rather than calm slipping over his pallor.

"Well, we can't let you leave until we know you have your new powers completely under control," Daisy explained. "And even then...you have to get doctors clearance. We have to confirm that we agree your stability has prepared you for the real world."

"We have to know you won't be using them for fun, or by accident. Only when it's absolutely necessary," Mack explained, gesturing with the hand that held the clipboard of Joey's information on it. He had been taking notes before, but stopped.

Asia bit her lower lip, then said one of the most difficult things for the newest Inhumans to hear. "And even then, we can't let you go back to your life, Joey," She shook her head, giving him a sympathetic gaze, one that she truly felt. "It's not safe for you, or for those you care about. It's terrible, it is, but to keep others safe, you won't be able to go back."

"Wait, wait, wait," Joey shook his head, "What do you mean? What do you mean I can't go back? Ever? That's my life out there," He gesticulated wildly, standing back up. "And I can't go back?" 

"Not any time soon, but maybe some day," Mack said, trying to soften the blow a little bit for him, knowing his words probably wouldn't change things wildly. 

"The first step in the right direction is control," Daisy explained calmly, trying to be that tower of a calming presence, not let Joey's frustrations sneak through. "And then Shield will build you a new identity and we can get you back out there, just...not the old you."

"No!" Joey shouted, "I'm sorry, but no! I don't want that. I like...I like my old life! It has taken me so long to get to a place where I actually like myself, like who I am and what I do, to get to a life where I'm comfortable with who I am. I'm not about to let you just rip that away from me!" He was spiraling downward, rapidly. Asia's nerves were turning up to eleven, but she didn't try and let him see it. That certainly wouldn't help anything moving forward. Suddenly, Joey reached down and grabbed his tan jacket off the bed. "Honestly, you know what? I want to leave, right now. I want to get out of here, get back to what I was doing." He tried to step towards the door and Asia sidestepped, sliding to block the clear path to the entrance.

Mack reached over and hit a remote on the wall, turning on the TV behind them, turning up the volume so they could all hear the news playing in the background, talking about Joey, not naming him specifically. As Mack rotated through the channels, Joey froze, turning back to look at the footage, utter sadness falling over his face, utter defeat, as the various newscasters called him a terrorist, advised a manhunt was going on. 

"The world has been a little...on edge, since Sokovia fell out of the sky, especially so when it comes to enhanced individuals," Daisy explained to him. "Right now, they're out there, looking through your apartment, talking to your family. We're the only place that's truly safe for you right now, and this is the path that will keep your family safe, too. And everyone around you, until you get your powers under control." 

"No, no let me out of here," Joey continued to protest. 

"Joey, you need to calm down," Asia shook her head, holding a hand out calmingly, to no effect. 

"No, I want to get the hell out!" Joey shouted again, stepping towards Daisy, continuing to say "let me out," repeatedly. 

"Joey, listen to me," Daisy tried again. "You're going to lose control if you don't calm down. You need to _breathe_." 

Asia heard Mack wince in the background, whirling to see the metal clipboard in Mack's hand start to melt with heat. She shot her hand towards him, a bubble of water surrounding the clipboard and his hand, cooling the metal, preventing the burn on his palm from starting. 

As she turned back around, Joey stepped towards Daisy, placing his hands on her shoulders, trying to get her to listen to him. "Let go of me!" Daisy shouted, forcefully shoving him off of her and then firing her arm out towards his chest, a jolt of vibrations rocketing him against the wall. Asia shot out her hand as well, a burst of water appearing behind his head to keep the blow from really fucking him up. His body slammed to the wall with a thud and fell to the ground, daggers of ice appearing around the floor, pointing at him menacingly. A form of protection, her automatic response to anyone hurting Daisy. Stop the threat, make her friends safe. 

The three agents looked at one another for a moment, then down at the man who was unconscious on the floor. Maybe that hadn't gone exactly as they had planned.


	4. Chapter 4

Asia hit the mat with a hard thud, Hunter panting over her as he swept her knees out from beneath her. "Come on, Ice Queen, where's that fire today?" Hunter said, almost frustrated as he made a face from above her, rolling over to lay flat on the mat beside her. "Your heads not in the game." He was right, it wasn't. He was rarely, if ever, able to knock her out flat, much less in three minutes. Their battles were usually long and winding, lasting up to ten minutes a spar before either got the upper hand. Not today, today he had the upper hand the whole time. Today, Asia had been taking it hits that a rookie wouldn't collide with. 

"You know me too well, Hunter," Asia replied with a sigh, staring up at the light bulb ran bolted into the brick ceiling above her. "I'm just not in it today. Leo is gone...who fucking knows where. Oh wait, your ex does but she's hiding everything from me. And our debrief with the new Inhuman went _horribly_." 

She could feel Hunter looking at her for a moment, just staring, before he spoke. "We can go again and I'll let you punch me in the face a few times if it'll help." 

Asia rolled her eyes, fighting a smile, before her watch beeped twice, pulling her out of her deep thoughts. Looking down, she read the message and hopped up to her feet. "As much fun as the sounds," she said, walking towards the door, "I've been called up to debrief alongside Daisy, so I gotta jet. Next time?"

"Any time you need, love," Hunter replied with a mock salute. She flashed him the rare hint of a smile and then she was gone, off down the hall to meet up with her team and speak with Coulson. 

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"There you are," Daisy greeted Asia, pulling her into a quick hug, which she did almost any time she saw the brunette. If anyone could use a hug these days, she figured it was Asia. "Coulson wants to know how the debrief with Joey went."

"Well, let's hope he didn't get his hopes up," Asia replied dryly, as she took her place on one side of the silver table beside Mack, leaving the other open for Coulson, Daisy standing at the head. 

As if on cue, Coulson walked in from one of the various hallways that led to the debriefing space below his office, directly below the vent Asia used to sleep in almost nightly. "Well, looks like the gangs all here," he clapped his hands together, the one he was wearing on his left arm today was a dull, grey plastic. Distinctly not human in appearance, but it didn't look like he was trying to hide it. "Let's get this started."

Mack tapped a few buttons on his tablet, and one of the various tv screens mounted on the wall switched from a weather channel to a view of Joey's room, where the man was pacing back and forth, hands on his hips. 

"He's going stircrazy down there," Daisy said with a sigh. "What he's going through, we all know the effects it manifests physically. But it's a whole other thing emotionally. Asia and I were lucky we had the support system we did at the time. He doesn't trust us, not yet. Definitely not after how I blew it during the meeting earlier."

"You didn't blow it," Asia sighed, brushing a strand of her long, brown hair over her shoulder. "We can't expect everyone to take the news smoothly. He could have attacked you. He melted a clipboard in Mack's hand. You did what you had to do." 

Daisy looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking over at Mack and Asia, "I'm just saying, maybe we could all work on being a little more welcoming. Mack, you're not exactly giving off teddy bear vides, Asia, you come in pulling your cloud of doom and gloom with you..."

"I prefer to think of it as 'realism,'" Asia rolled her eyes at Daisy, crossing her arms over her chest. She paused for a moment, before sighing. "But you're right. I think we need help. Someone who's done all of this before."

Daisy nodded at Asia, giving her a small, apologetic smile, for the doom and gloom comment. "Right. And there's someone who's better at that than any of us. Better at that than anyone."

"Lincoln Campbell?" Coulson asked, sipping from a coffee cup, raising an eyebrow at Daisy. They had gone down this path before. Lincoln was not exactly interested in being a full-fledged member of Team Shield. Coulson started to move away from the table and down the hall, nodding at them to follow along. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes," Daisy replied quickly, as all three of the agents followed their Director, Asia and Mack hanging back slightly, allowing Daisy to walk beside him as they argued their case. "He understands how this work better than any of us. He's an actual doctor, so he understands the physical treatments needed after transition, where we're just shooting in the dark about what might help."

"Last time you tried this recruitment tactic, he wasn't exactly thrilled," Coulson pointed out, turning down the hall as his little train of agents followed closely behind.

"Well, I'd like the chance to try again. Now we have proof we need him, he might be a little more flexible," Daisy responded.

Coulson slowed, stopping in the middle of the hall, turning to face all of them. "Mack, Asia, what do you guys think? If you're functioning as a team, I want you all to be on the same page."

Asia thought for a moment, not about what her friend might feel romantically towards the blonde who had disappeared, but about how he had made her feel in Afterlife. Welcomed, safe, not alone anymore. She thought of that freeing feeling he had provided her when he helped her understand the full extent of her powers. "I think Daisy is right," she responded, but that was all the detail she gave. 

Mack looked at the two women, then over at Coulson. "I've already voiced my opinions on letting Lincoln use his 'get out of jail free' card. I'd happily drag him right back to base, but if Daisy thinks she can _talk_ him into safely returning, to functioning in a place where we know he won't hurt anyone, I think we should let her try it.

"Sounds like it's settled then," Coulson replied with a nod, taking another sip of his coffee. "I want all of you to go. Requisition a flight team and a Quinnjet, go find him. I hope to see four of you coming back to base rather than three." He nodded at Daisy, giving her a look of understanding. He knew this was also a personal matter for her, even if he wasn't going to say it. 

The trio looked at one another, nodding. "Thank you, sir," Asia replied to Coulson, as they all turned and headed back the way they had come from, towards the hanger. It was getting late in the day. They would have to get moving. 

There was a Quinnjet practically waiting for them to take when they got to the hanger, a flight team available too, a good option for some rookie fly-along flight training. It would do, the three decided. As much as Asia loved flying, she wanted to be able to focus on the mission in front of them. And she wouldn't have her ice bath on this flight. She only had that in the Lab, and on the Zephyr. So she really needed to focus, get herself mentally ready. She felt like she was growing to dependent on that isolation tank anyways. It was nice, it helped her think, helped her also not _have_ to think about anything but herself and the cold water, but she used to be able to do that all so easily without aid. It was time she got back to that. 

As they strapped in, she pulled out her phone and typed a quick message over to Nat, nothing lengthy, just more of a 'hey, miss you, coffee soon,' and sent. It was nice, now that Shield was really back in the swing of things, knowing she could reach out to her old team whenever she needed to. The phone buzzed back almost instantly.

 _In Brazil, running an Op. Can't talk now. How next week, coffee then. -N_ Asia read the text and smirked to herself. Natasha was always answering her texts with her sign off, even though Asia knew who it was. Of course she did, she had her contact saved in her phone. It was just one of those silly Natasha-isms, and Asia appreciated it every time.

She tucked her phone away and leaned back in her seat. It wouldn't be a long flight, not to where they were headed. Some central-state located hospital where Lincoln was working now. Even with a rookie learning the ropes up front, they would still be flying much faster than most of the other birds in the sky. The team entertained casual conversation the entire flight there, steering clear of the subjects they all knew they couldn't handle. For example, no one mentioned Leo Fitz, no one mentioned Daisy's other reason for seeking out Lincoln. No one talked about how Mack's two best friends, Hunter and Bobbi, weren't talking anymore. They knew each other well, knew the boundaries. So they focused on other things, like the mystery ops team they were always going up again, the sudden rise in the meals provided at HQ. General things, things that were easy, things that they could talk about without losing too much focus on what would be happening ahead.

And shortly later, about an hour and a half, the Quinnjet touched down, rather nicely for a newbie, on the roof of the hospital in question. The trio looked at one another, not speaking, just standing up, stretching. No need for bullet proof vests on this one. Only words and calm emotions. "Alright guys, let's get this show on the road," Daisy said, trying to sound lighthearted.

That was the problem with being such close friends with your teammates. They could read you like a book, they could read the nerves, and they could read the lies.


	5. Chapter 5

It was easy enough to get Lincoln into a room alone with them. Pose as a patient, draw up some fake papers, have Daisy wait on a bed behind a drawn curtain, Mack and Asia stand in the shadows to shut the door after the doctor entered, dressed in blue scrubs and a white lab coat. And that's exactly what they did. By the looks of things, Lincoln wasn't super pleased about the whole thing. He looked over at Mack first, as he shut the door tightly, a look of anger flashing in his gaze. When his eyes fell on Asia...disappointment. Like he couldn't believe that Asia Monroe, of all people, was here to interrogate him. 

The weight of the disappointment was like a slap to the face for Asia, and she looked away, down at her feet, ashamed. She didn't like the idea of making Lincoln disappointed. She liked the guy, she really did. This was just the job. And frankly, if he had made himself a little easier to contact, they probably wouldn't be here right now. At least, that's what she told herself, that made his shameful gaze a little more bearable. 

So she stood back, leaning against the wall, watching as Daisy tried to get him to understand how dire their situation really was. Asia nodded along as her friend explained how amazing Lincoln was at helping new Inhumans transition, helping them understand their complete potential and realize that what happened to them was a gift, not a curse. "She's right," Asia said, after Daisy said something about how he had made her feel like she still had a life. "You helped me, too. You can help others." The two locked eyes for a moment, and she stared until he looked away. She didn't want him thinking she wasn't being honest.

"That's bullshit and you both know it," Lincoln said, defeatedly. "You both know I was just regurgitating a lie, one that had been shoved down my throat since I was born. What we are, what we do. It's a curse." Daisy's eyes widened a little in shock, but Asia noted she kept almost all of the emotion off of her face. "You, Daisy, of all people should understand that."

Asia bowed her head, holding onto one of her arms uncomfortably as Daisy tried to win him back. She knew this was hurting her friend in more ways than one. She almost felt...invasive...hearing this conversation go on.

Suddenly, Mack had his hand on Lincoln's upper arm and Lincoln was shoving him away. Asia took a step forward, defensively, her feet sliding into a strong stance, ready to freeze anyone's feet in place if she had to. The air in room had grown palpably tense, and she wasn't sure if it was from the encounter or from Lincoln's powers. Either way, the hairs along her arms were standing on edge.

"You know what I'm capable of," Lincoln said, taking a step towards Mack so the two men were practically toe to toe, nose to nose. "You've seen what I can do."

"I'm not afraid of you," Mack replied evenly. Asia didn't like the idea of where this was going. It sounded bad. The kind of bad where not everyone made it out of this room completely uninjured. 

"Maybe you should be," Lincoln said, the words coming out as a suggestion but more heavily tainted as a threat. Suddenly, the room went black for a moment, before the lights above them started to flicker rapidly, on and off and on again.

Daisy looked over to Asia and the two women locked eyes for a moment. "Woah, woah, Lincoln," Daisy started to say, as Asia took another step closer to the two men.

"You need to cool down," Asia said calmly, trying to get Lincoln to look at her. All ice jokes aside, he needed to stop whatever he was doing. His anger was affecting the entire hospital, which meant it was affecting all of the patients as well. 

Lincoln glanced back at Daisy, then over at Asia, shaking his head as the lights continued to flicker, until the room fell completely into an eerie darkness. "This...this isn't me," he pushed past Mack, heading towards the door. Asia turned quickly, following him out. 

The lights out in the halls were flickering as well, screens of computers blinking in and out. Doctors were running about, nurses trying to get the computers to work once more. There was a loud, ear-piercing scream that echoed from one of the hallways, bouncing off the tiled floors and windowed walls.

Lincoln stopped at the "T" of a hall, as the lights fell to black, staring down the length of the hall. Asia stopped beside him, Daisy and Mack shortly behind. At the end of the hallway, they could see a security guard frantically reaching for his gun, hand shaking with nerves, as he called for an unseen entity to stay where they were, to not come a step closer. The hairs on the back of Asia's neck were standing up. Her intuition was screaming at her, telling her this was a bad plan, that whatever here was so, so incredibly dangerous.

Suddenly, a thick, gnarled arm reached out, slamming a pulse of blue energy into the guards chest, his chest forming a convex arch towards the palm of the hand that was hurting him, his eyes rolling back in his head and he let out an unearthly scream. His feet lifted from the ground as his entire body was lifted into the air, strands of the blue energy wrapping around his body like tentacles.

They could hear the voice of whatever was creating the blue light, even though all they could see was his large, trunk of an arm. It sounded like nails on a chalk board, like every demonic voice in every horror movie. The simple uttering of words that came from his mouth sent quakes of an natural fear down her spine, a fear that felt like it was woven into her DNA. An ultimate fight or flight reaction.

"Now," The voice cackled out, echoing down the halls as he tortured the guard in front of him. "Tell me where I can find the Inhuman." The guard tried to speak, but couldn't. Suddenly, the blue pulse yanked away from his chest, leaving a bleeding, burnt crater in its wake. Daisy turned to look at Asia in horror. 

Suddenly, with two heavy steps, the figure who had wielded the blue energy stepped forward into the dim lit hall. He had grey skin and a hideous face. His hair was jet black, almost blue, and seemed to sprout from roots in his forehead, falling in spikes over his shoulders. He was at least seven feet tall, and had hulking muscles. His hand looked like it could palm Asia's entire head. He bared his teeth, almost grinning, or maybe hissing, at towards them, his canines pronounced and sharp. 

As soon as he turned and laid eyes on the team, he started to sprint towards them. Lincoln instinctively ran forward, electricity crackling over his palms. When he got about five feet away, he shot a bolt directly at the creatures chest. It seemed to deter him for only a moment, before he reached Lincoln, thick hand grabbing Lincoln's wrist and thrusting upwards, the lightning arching towards the ceiling.

Instantly, Asia and Daisy jolted forward, Asia sending blade after blade of ice towards the beast, slicing against his grey skin, trickles of blood running down. Daisy sent a quake of vibrations towards the thing, knocking him back and away from Lincoln. Mack stepped forward, taking out his pistol, firing lethal shots at the thing's chest. But it didn't fall. It grunted in frustration, clutching at one of the bullet wounds and looking down at the blood that pooled in its palm. 

Suddenly, it turned with a yell, drawing a circle with a claw on the wall, the same ethereal blue energy tracing his fingernail. Following the blue magic a tunnel in the wall was ripped open, giving him a door into the next hall over. Just as quickly as it had happened, the creature jumped through the wall, disappearing.

Asia leaned over, extending a hand to Lincoln and helping him up from the ground. He gave her hand a quick squeeze as she did so, and Asia gave him a small smile. 

"We're going to have to hit this thing with everything we've got," Daisy advised. "We're barely tickling him right now. No holding back." 

"And apparently I need a bigger gun...or my ax," Mack mused, as he reloaded his pistol. "Maybe...maybe some shotgun-ax combination. That would do the trick I bet." Daisy didn't even appear to listen, she just grabbed Asia by the wrist, pulling her through the hole in the wall. They had work to do after all, and a big bady to catch. Even if every molecule in their bodies were telling them to run far away from this thing.

The hole brought them into a separate hallway, where the lights still flickered on and off, mostly staying in the off stage. It was quiet, far too quiet for how the hospital should be at this moment in time, at least that was Asia's opinion on the matter. She expected more screaming, more running. But, maybe everyone had gotten to safety already, which really was the best outcome in this moment.

As they passed by a doorway, Mack nodded towards something brushed at an edge on the wall. A smear of blood, as if someone had propped themselves up here while moving quickly. Maybe the big monster, whatever he had been, really was hurting. As he nodded for them to keep moving forward, he slowly opened the door, gun raised, just to make sure they were clear on the inside. 

As Asia checked a corner to make sure they were clear ahead, she heard a tearing sound from behind them. Whirling around, she saw the creature pushing through another hole in the wall, slamming a punch into Mack's chest, sending him flying into the room he had just been checking. As she turned, Asia extended out her right hand, palm open, a glowing blueish-white blast of ice that funneled directly into the creatures chest, at the same time that Daisy sent a wave of her own towards it and Lincoln sent two twin spirals of electricity outwards.

The massive waves of energy being through at him seemed to surprise the thing, catch him off guard. The combination of all three powers hitting against him began pushing the creature backwards, the boots on his feet squeaking against the tile floor as the force pushed him back, knocking him to his knees. Daisy grinned as Asia stepped up beside her, thrusting another hand forward so an additional shock of ice was hitting the creature they were battling. 

But suddenly, it was as if the thing was getting a second wind, standing up against the force pushing it backwards. Things were beginning to look less in the favor of the three Inhumans as it stepped forward towards them, pushing back against the combination of all three of their powers. 

In one quick move, Daisy shift her palms towards the floor, the linoleum crumbling against the force of her quakes, shattering beneath his stance, sending the giant brute falling away from them to the floor below. Asia leaned over on her knees, breathing heavily as if she had just sprinted a mile. That combined attack had taken a lot of effort from all of them, and it still hadn't been enough. Mack stepped out of the room he had been tossed into, looking at the hole in the floor, then up at the three of them.

"Come on," He said, "Stairs are that way. Let's try and get this thing before it gets away." He was right. They didn't want something like that, whatever it was, getting out among people. It had the potential to hurt so many. 

Standing back to her feet, Asia brushed her hair back and nodded, looking at Lincoln and Daisy to make sure they were okay. "He's right. Let's finish this," she said, her tone cold and calculating, in an air that she hadn't been carrying when she first entered the hospital that day. Daisy recognized this side of Asia, almost welcomed it, in comparison to the slightly sad, quiet version they had been getting lately. Asia turned from her team, jogging towards the stairs. They had to get a move on, before he got away.

As the quartet made it downstairs, a clearly carved hole was in the wall, much like the one the beast had climbed out of to begin with. Even though they were over two stories up, it appeared he had jumped out to safety below. As they approached the hole in the wall to look outside, dark vehicles with tinted windows were pulling up, members of that all-too-familiar black ops squad piling out, shouting orders about lethal force and bringing in Inhumans.

"We've got to go," Asia muttered to the others. "I can't see them waiting much longer before coming in here, and I don't think we want to be here when they do." Daisy looked at her friend, nodding. She was right. 

"Lincoln, you should come with us," Daisy tried one last time, her voice coming across a little pleading. "We can keep you safe, from them, from whatever we just fought. Your life is in danger now..." She bit her lower lip, looking up at the blonde, hoping he would agree, hoping he would come with, hoping she could have him in her life again.

"My life...my life is in ruins," Lincoln replied quickly, shoving past her and running off down the destroyed hospital hallway. The events that had occurred that day really had ruined everything. His job was gone now, everyone he had been working with knew his secret. He would have to rebuild, again, like he had so many different times. He was tired, so tired, of always running. 

Daisy tried to dart after him, but Mack grabbed her arm. "Hey, no, he's on his own," he said calmly. "We've got to get out of here, too. They're hunting you and Asia. They won't stop if they know you two are here." Daisy faltered for a moment, knowing his words were true. For all of their safeties, they had to go.

As they ran down the hall towards the stairs again, which would lead them towards the roof where they had parked their plane, Daisy looked over at Asia with sadness, a look that Asia could see was driven deep down into her heart. A look of loss, and anger, and emptiness. A look that carried feelings Asia knew all too well.

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Back at the base, Asia headed for the locker room to deposit her "go-bag," maybe take a shower afterwords. It had been a long day, and she couldn't take the hurt to her heart of walking into the room she so often used to share with Leo and having it be empty. Was he home? She had no idea. Was he even alive? She was pretty sure of that at least, she felt like she would feel it if he wasn't.

As she was about to enter, Bobbi came shoving her way out, the two nearly colliding. "Oh, sorry. God head, go on in. Your best friend is in there anyways, I'm sure he would much rather talk to you than me." Her tone was clearly annoyed. 

Asia frowned at her, eyebrows drawing down into a glower. "Bold, coming from you," she muttered back, crossing her arms over her chest. Clearly, Hunter was behind the door to the locker room. And also clearly, Bobbi had just tried talking to him, to no avail. "You spend all day working with Leo...talking with Leo...knowing where he is, if he's okay. I don't know _anything_ , he barely speaks to me anymore. So don't you think you're being a little hypocritical?" 

The anger that had been coloring Bobbi's face shifted to embarrassment as the fight in her fell away, realizing the truth in Asia's words. "I'm...sorry," She said, shaking her head. "Fitz is taking everything hard right now. You know Jemma is one of his best friends. But I know this can't be easy on you...either. I can...I can try and say something to him when he's back, make him remember not _everyone_ is gone." 

Asia looked away for a moment, down the hall, before turning back to Bobbi. "I'd like that. I know Jemma being gone is hard...for everyone. I can...talk to Hunter about at least being cordial. If that helps at all." 

"I would like that," Bobbi said, giving Asia a tiny smile, placing a hand on her shoulder as she brushed past. "And you're right. We all miss Jemma." Her cheeks turned slightly red at this comment, before she continued off down the hall, as if she had never even been there at all.

Asia shook her head, trying to get over how weird that interaction had been. Quietly, she pushed through the door, into the locker room, where Hunter was in the middle of changing out of a dirty, sweaty grey shirt, a bit of a bruise forming on one of his bare ribs. 

"What's that from?" Asia asked, setting her bag down on a bench, seeing the look of clear frustration on his face. That must have been from the interaction he had just had with his ex wife. 

"Oh you know, our surprise mission to get the jump on the bird whose running those black ops blokes, they go by the ATCU, by the way, well it didn't go quite as planned," he nodded down on the bruise. "Seems she wasn't as predictable as we thought." He sighed, leaning against the locker and crossing his arms over his chest, careful to avoid the purple bruise. "What about you? You've been gone all night, love. Thought you might not be coming back," he shot her a playful wink, causing the brunette to roll her eyes.

"We went after Lincoln," Asia explained, opening her locker code and sliding the bag inside. "Didn't go as planned either, though my ribs are all perfectly in place." She patted her sides for emphasis, a hint of a smile coming across her lips.

Hunter sighed, standing up and taking a step towards her, "I know that can't be easy, for you or for Daisy. You were both quite close."

Asia frowned, looking down at the ground, kicking it twice with her toe. "Yea...it wasn't great. Hearing him say he didn't want us around? That what we are is a disease? Brought back all these thoughts and feelings from when I first turned." She shook her head, chuckling a little to herself. "It's a little silly honestly, but it reminded me of what it felt like....what it felt like to think I was a monster." 

"You've never been a monster, love," Hunter said, stopping to lean on the locker directly beside hers, looking her down in the eye. For the first time, ever, Asia felt...not necessarily uncomfortable, but a friction from the closer space between them. A space that made her usually cold skin feel...almost warm. Made her stomach flip flop. No one had been this close to her...in a way that made her feel this way...than the last time Leo slept in her bed. That had been over a month. She swallowed, hard, looking up at him. "Look at you, even Inhuman, you've never been anything but a badass. Never been anything but a force to be reckoned with. You're beautiful, love." 

She shook her head, smirking up at Hunter. "And you're quite the talker, Hunter," she replied. "But I do appreciate it. It's been a rough...rough few months." She didn't like the idea of her feelings getting to her, of being sad in front of others, but here she was, tearing up. 

Without another thought, Hunter stretched his arms out, pulling her into a hug, rubbing his hand up and down the small of her back gently, protectively. "There, there. No need to be sad, little Ice Queen. You're friends are always here for you. I'm always here for you." The way he said the words, she knew he meant it. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, hugging Hunter back, tightly. 

The two of them stood like that for a moment, Hunter soaking in the cool touch of her skin, her soaking in the warmth of his. It felt different...but not necessarily bad, than what the both of them were used to. 

After a moment, Hunter pulled back a little, letting his arms loosen. Asia did the same, looking up at him, almost...nervous of what was happening. This wasn't...it wasn't right, but it wasn't wrong either. She needed comfort, company, and so did he. He was looking back at her, licking his lower lip, and his gaze drifting from her eyes, to her lips, then back up again, almost unsure himself of what was to happen next. 

But Asia didn't pull away, she started to lean forward, shutting her eyes, their noses bumping together ever so slightly, when she heard someone running by, shouting. 

"Fitz broke into Containment!" The words cut through her like a lethal blade. She wasn't even thinking, didn't even remember the moment, how it happened, but she was out into the hall, sprinting faster than she had ever moved before, arms pumping to propel herself forward, as she ran towards the Containment room, where the Monolith was. She had to get there, had to get there, she had to, before he disappeared too.


	6. Chapter 6

She passed Bobbi, passed Daisy, passed Mack. Her feet moved at an unnatural speed, an Inhuman speed, as she hauled herself through the halls, rounding the corner to the length of space that held the doors to the Containment Chamber, her palm skidding against the brick wall as she used it to help herself turn, flesh tearing a little bit as she did so. There was a terror racing through her body like she had never before experienced. Leo had broken through the locks on the Monolith somehow, and now he was in there, with it. He could get swallowed up. He could die. He could be gone forever. She could feel tears starting to trickle down her cheeks, freezing as they did so. All the walls started to slick over with ice as she ran.

She shoved through the doors and saw him, punching at the stupid grey rock, glass door to its containment opened, the lock shot out with a shotgun that lay at his feet. Leo Fitz. White shirt, covered in dust, with the sleeves rolled up a quarter of the way up his arms, grey pants, his face red with exertion and anger as he slammed his fists, knuckles bloody, against the Monolith, screaming and crying out with each hit. 

She darted towards him, grabbing him around the waist and pulling him backwards, towards the wall. They fell to the ground together, Leo struggling to get away from her. She held tightly to him with one arm, the other arm thrusting out, a bolt of ice slamming the glass door shut, and she held the ray of ice against it, closing her eyes at hoping she wouldn't let it fall. She looked at Leo, her eyes wide with fear and confusion, as the others stormed into the room, running towards the Monolith to help her hold the door shut. As Mack, Bobbi, and Hunter slammed their bodies against the glass, she let the ice fall, panting deeply, as Leo gave up fighting against her. 

Suddenly, the Monolith shifted, melting and dripping, the grey liquefied version splashing against the sides of the glass box which held it. Asia stared at it in horror. If she had been later....Leo could have still been in there. He could have been swallowed whole by that thing. She quickened her grip on him, pulling him towards her, holding him tightly as they watching the Monolith reform. Then, she dropped her hold, panting heavily, her body drained, her emotions frying her beyond belief.

She looked over at Leo, breathing deeply, staring at him unblinking. How could he have done that? Was he really willing to....willing to die for Jemma? "What were you doing?" She breathed out, barely able to speak.

Suddenly, Coulson came striding in, strapping his mechanical hand to his forearm, a grim look on his face. “God damnit, Fitz!” He cursed. “What the hell were you thinking?” Coulson's face was coated in anger, but also another look. Fear. 

"I had to know," Leo replied, shaking his head, pointing a finger towards the Monolith, trying to sit up out of Asia's grasp. 

Coulson looked at the grey rock, then down at the agent in front of him. "We could have lost another good agent today. One of my best is gone, we can't afford to lose you too." 

Asia sat up, letting Leo breath for a moment, as Hunter leaned down to look at him. "Were you trying to get yourself bloody killed?" He asked, a hint of fear in the man's voice as well. Leo and Hunter had always been mates, ever since last year. 

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Leo pressed a hand to his forehead, grimacing in frustration. "I can't give up. I won't, I won't do it." 

There was an utter sense of sadness hitting Asia directly in the heart. There was a defeat in Leo's posture, one which hadn't been there before. And he didn't even seem to care that he had almost died. She looked up at Daisy, and Bobbi, and Hunter, Coulson, all of her people surrounding them, and she didn't know what to say or do. She felt like he was slipping away from right in front of her. She didn't know how to fix this, fix any of it. She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak but couldn't find anything to say. 

"None of us want to give up, Fitz," Daisy said, crossing her arms over her chest. "But it's not that simple." 

Bobbi sighed, kneeling down in front of him so he was forced to look her in the eyes. "Fitz, you tried. No one can say you didn't. We all know it, we can all see it. You tried." He was leaning back now, arms propped on the concrete behind him, and this was when Bobbi noticed a smudge on his face. A tear, maybe dirt. She wasn't sure. She leaned forward, rubbing her thumb over the flex, something coming off onto the pad of her thumb. The blonde agent looked down at it, and Leo did too, reaching forward and pressing his finger against her thumb, swiping the dirt onto his own finger, rubbing it between his pads. 

He looked down at the sharp shards, sand, between his fingertips. This hadn't been there before this experiment. This was new, this was something completely different. He breathed in and out deeply, glancing over his shoulder at Asia, then back at his fingertips, then up at Bobbi. 

"Fitz, what is that?" Bobbi asked slowly, leaning forward to get a better look at whatever he had in front of her.

He blinked, once, twice, rubbing his fingers together again for a moment, still staring in awe. "This is proof," he replied, hefting himself off of the floor and running down the hallway, as if the entire ordeal that had just been laid out in front of them had never actually occurred. 

Asia stared out the doorway which he had run out of, shaking her head. What was even happening? What was she supposed to _do_? She felt like she was absolutely losing her mind. 

"Agent Monroe..." Coulson began to speak slowly. "Do you know..?"

Asia shook her head. No, she had no clue what had just happened in front of them. Absolutely none. She didn't take her eyes off of the hall. She didn't want her teammates to see the shine in her eyes as she watched him run away.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't long, an hour maybe, a the most, before Leo was calling them all into one of the briefing rooms, the screens already geared up and ready to go for his demonstration. Daisy, Mack, Hunter, Bobbi, and Coulson all gathered in the room, sitting around the large table between him and the rest of the team. Asia dragged one of her nails over a crescent shape that was imprinted in the brown wood. She was nervous. And Asia Monroe never looked nervous. Daisy watched her out of the corner of her eye, trying to not be mega-obvious she was checking on her friend. But whatever Asia was thinking about, it had her far too distracted to even notice.

"Sand," Leo said, pacing back and forth and pointing at the screens in front of them, then wringing his hands back and forth. "Sand, from the Monolith. Not just any sand, but _impossible_ sand." 

"The room the Monolith is held in...it is kept completely clean," Mack said with a nod, hands on his hips. "I oversee half of that cleaning myself. There's nothing in there but that damn rock." 

Leo pointed out at Mack, nodding. "Exactly. That's exactly it."

"Yea, but," Hunter said with a nod, looking over at Leo, then towards Mack. "When you run in guns blazing and blast the damn lock open with a shotgun, things might get a tad contaminated." 

"Okay, okay I get it," Leo said, hands pressing to his temples for a moment as the stress took over. Asia wanted to get up, to go to him, to comfort him, but she didn't budge. "The sand itself isn't what is so unusual. I've analyzed it and this sand is compiled of primarily silicone-dioxide particles, much like sand from here on Earth." He pointed at one of the screens behind him that had the list of materials making up the particles, the list scrolling through the percentages of each variety on an infinite loop. 

"I'm guessing you are implying the sand is _not_ from Earth?" Coulson asked, keeping himself even and composed as he so often did. It was impressive. On the inside, he was just as curious what the answer to his question was as everyone else in the room. It seemed, for the first time in a long time, that they actually had a lead on Agent Simmons.

"Sir, the carbon dating from the samples shows-" Bobbi began to say, before Leo stepped up again and cut her off.

"Sir, it predates the Earth by over a billion years," Leo's sentence hit the others like a slap to the face. Even Asia's eyes widened for a moment. 

"So..." Daisy said, brow furrowing as she was trying to completely understand the situation, stepping closer to the table and propping herself against it. "You think the rock is a portal?" 

"No, no," Leo said, shaking his head, almost appearing frustrated that his team wasn't understanding what he was saying, wasn't "science-y" enough. "I'm _proving_ to you that it's a portal. A portal between here and another planet, yea? A very old planet, much older than Earth. This portal took Simmons from _here_ , sent here _there_ , and brought the sand back...." Leo looked up at the screens, then out at his team again, zoning in on Coulson, needing his leader to understand what he was trying to say. "Which means...."

"It means she's out there," Coulson said evenly, with a nod. He had seen Fitz stumble down so many rabbit holes trying to find some sort of clue as to what happened to Jemma Simmons. And now, finally, after all of these months, it seemed like they had finally found something. Something hidden, in a small grain of sand. Before they got too far into this, Coulson needed to know what Leo's plan was. "But it's been months..."

"Well, yea," Leo replied with a shrug, trying to not let the defeat show on his face. Was Coulson really about to slash his findings right in front of his face? Tell him it was no use? No, no he couldn't do that. They could finally find Simmons, they could finally bring her home.

"She could be long gone by now, far from wherever the Monolith dropped her," Coulson continued, moving around the table, stepping closer and closer to Leo with every word until they were standing face to face, Leo nodding and acknowledging every point Coulson made. "She could be dead," Coulson said, nodding solemnly.

"Yes, yes she could be," Leo replied, exasperated, throwing his hands up for a moment before letting them fall to his sides, deflated. Asia clenched her fists, standing up slowly, ready to intervene if she had to. 

"But," Coulson said, his word floating in the air in anticipation for a moment. "We're going to find out. Aren't we?" Asia's fists unclenched, pleasantly surprised. Leo's eyes widened and she could see the tears that were hiding in them.

"Yea," Asia said in affirmation, the word echoed by every other agent in the room, all standing in solidarity.

For a moment, they all seemed together, like a team. For a moment. 

"Okay Fitz, what do you need?" Coulson asked the scientist in front of him. 

Leo seemed to not expect the question, stuttering for a moment. "Um, well, well I need some additional historical data. It's out there. People have been studying this rock for centuries. I need...uhhh. An expert on quantum mechanics. String theory. And the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory." He listed them each on his fingers then paused for a moment, spinning slowly and looking around the room until his eyes landed on eyes. "And, um, a sandwich would be nice." 

The room got quiet. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. Asia froze for a moment, fists clenching ever so slightly as she stared at him. Did he...did he really just ask her that? She didn't speak, she didn't blink, she could hardly breath. Without another word, Asia spun on her heel and stalked out of the room, a trail of dropping temperature behind her. 

"Fitz...what the fuck?" Daisy said, looking at him and shaking her head, as she walked quickly out of the room after her friend. Someone had to calm Asia Monroe down before she froze the entire city.


	7. Chapter 7

Asia’s actual assignment, not making a sandwich, was joining Coulson and Bobbi and Leo on a flight over seas. Asia was going to let Bobbi fly. The spy hadn't gotten a lot of time out of base recently, still recovering from her injury courtesy of Ward. Daisy had managed to calm her down beforehand, as all good friends do. It took a moment, that was for sure. Daisy was pretty sure every few minutes that she herself was about to get frozen (which never happened). 

Coulson had a source from them, an alien from Asgard, who had been living on the planet for centuries. If the Monolith had been around for as long as they believed it had, might as well find a man who had been around just as long. Asia wasn't surprised one bit that Coulson knew just who that was. 

Standing at the ramp to the plane, Hunter walked out, bag slung over his shoulder, heading towards one of the motorcycles. He glanced over his shoulder towards Coulson, Bobbi, and Asia, stopping for a moment when his eyes landed on the brunette. Asia gave him a small shake of her head. No, not now. Not ever, preferably, if it meant acknowledging the almost-moment in the locker room. There were some things that were just best left buried. Plus, Hunter was going after Ward. No need to ruin his focus.

If the others noticed the interaction between the two, they didn't acknowledge it. Good, Asia thought to herself as she climbed the ramp into the jet, setting her bag below her chair that was alongside the wall. It was time for a nice nap. Time to not think for a little bit. Time to not dwell on the incredibly rude thing Leo had said to her. She didn't even know if he recognized how wrong it had been to say it to her. She didn't know if he saw anything outside of getting Jemma back. Did he even see her anymore? Did he look for her in a room? Feel her when she entered? (Well, probably didn't feel her, not in the way she felt him. She could feel his water signature now, recognize him in a crowd. It was a weird part of her powers, and she didn't quite understand it. All she knew is she could feel him, always him). 

When they touched down, Asia turned to Coulson who was sitting two seats over from her. "Who exactly are we here to get?" She had glanced out the window, and it appeared like they were at a prison. She checked over her shoulder once more. Yea, definitely a prison.

"A friend," Coulson replied with a slim smile, keeping the air of mystery about him. Asia rolled her eyes, but Coulson saw a hint of a smile on her lips. Good. He didn't want the frosty air to carry over to the meeting they were about to have. "But let's get this show on the road. We've got limited time and a lot of convincing to do."

Asia stood up, stretching and letting her joints pop after the long flight. She didn't love the sound of having to convince someone, but maybe that was why she was brought along. She cracked her knuckles, glancing back at Coulson in question. 

"We're going to try and talk it out first," He said with a shrug, "But we'll do what we have to do. Frankly, I think I can be pretty convincing." 

"You got me all the way here, didn't you?" She asked sarcastically, causing her Director to grin. She smirked to herself, walking quickly down the ramp and greeting the guard who was waiting for them, presenting her Shield ID. They had work to do, he was right about that. And it all started with getting inside. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The corridors were long and cement, cool to the touch. The small heels on Asia's combat boots clicked as they walked down the hall as a unit, looking for one cell in particular. Coulson had gotten directions from a guard after they had passed through security, then he took the lead from there. The took a left turn, went up a set of stairs, before they finally came to a stop, Coulson rapping on the bars twice.

A man looked up from a book he was reading, a man, older, probably late forties, early fifties in appearance, with tight, curly hair and some weathered wrinkles, a man who Asia recognized from three years ago. Doctor Elliot Randolph. And he didn't look a day older than when he had helped the Shield team last. And here he was, instead of teaching at a University, in a prison.

"Elliot Randolph," Coulson said in greeting, giving him a curt nod. The man behind the bars looked at Coulson with his lips pressed into a thin line. Asia could already pick up on the vibe that this guy wasn't exactly in the mood to come willingly. Maybe Coulson had known this going in as well, and maybe that was why he had brought her along. 

“Phil Coulson,” Elliot replied, setting his book on a desk and standing up to look at them all. “What brings you to my neck of the woods?” He gestured around his cell sarcastically. It was...odd, to find him here, of all places. The last they had seen him, he had been a pretty esteemed professor. "What can I do for you? Because I don't think you would be here if you didn't need _something_." 

"You're a smart man, always have been," Coulson replied calmly. "We're here because we need your help. We are looking for the key to an ancient portal, and we think you might know where to find it."

Before Coulson could even get out the words on why they needed help, what they were here for, Elliot was speaking again. "I'm sorry Phil, but I really can't help you. And before you ask if I can't, or if I _won't_ , aren't they really just the same thing from different perspectives?"

"Alright, then why won't you?" Coulson asked, never taking his eyes from the alien in front of them.

Elliot scoffed, rolling his eyes with strong emphasis, before they made it all the way around to look back at Coulson. "There's not a list long enough for me to write down all the reasons but I can name a few. The nightly news, the current political climate, the war on aliens, cities flying into the atmosphere, Asgardians coming here to potentially bring me back to that hell planet every damn day." He ticked off each reason on his weathered fingers. "The public wasn't a fan of aliens before, but they're especially paranoid now. Pretty shitty time to be on earth, if you're not a local, so I'm taking a breather, staying hidden," Elliot then chuckled, glancing around his room. "And then, there's these bars. Certainly can't get past them."

Bobbi already knew his arrest reasons. "Public intoxication, destruction of public and private property," she listed off, staring the alien in his grey eyes questioningly, wanting to hear his reasoning for imprisonment. 

Elliot couldn't help but laugh once more. "Yes, well, it's a bit of a long story. Asgardians can usually hold their liquor. One night I just tried to hold all of it. In the bar. And now, here I am."

"Certainly you could just use your alien strength to break out of here," Coulson replied evenly, not wanting the man to get off topic. They needed him, needed his brain, his knowledge, the wealth of it which he had accumulated over the years. 

"I'm sure I could, but why try? These Norwegian prison systems, they're quite nice. Top tier, some might say. The food is good, the bed is nice, it's never cold, and I always have a good book to read. Best part is no one pays attention to the middle-aged man stuck in here for drinking just a bit too much," Elliot replied with a small grin, tapping his hardcover book against the curve of his shoulder. "Maybe in a few months of being pent up, I'll be in the mood to help."

"We don't have a few months," Leo stepped forward from behind the three agents, looking at Elliot for a moment, then at the ground, fidgeting with his finger nervously. Asia had almost forgotten he was there, he had been so quiet up until this moment. 

"That's alright Agent Fitz, neither does our friend here," Coulson patted Leo on the shoulder, letting the scientist step back to the shadows. "You see, Elliot, you owe me. I saved your life. I've never tried to cash in on that favor once, but I will now. And if you're not comfortable with that, there's plenty of blacklisted agencies who would be happy to have a real live Asgardian to dissect in their labs." He stared Elliot down, begging him to challenge him again. 

"Why Coulson...is that a threat I hear?" Elliot almost laughed, surprised at the hand Coulson was playing. Who was this man before him now, never before known to play the card of violence and torture. That was much more Fury's style, but here they were, in this moment.

"Well, yea, yea it is," Coulson mocked as if a lightbulb had just gone off in his mind.

"You've changed," Elliot said, standing up and leaning against the bars, looking Coulson in the eyes, searching for...something. After a moment, he sighed, resting against the blue bars which caged him. "You know...you'll have to cover my release. And. If there is a portal, which I still don't believe is true, I need you to understand the gravity of this situation. We're moving into a very dangerous place with this. But..." he trailed off, looking between the four agents in front of him. "Not like you're giving me much of a choice." 

Suddenly, the man grabbed onto the bars, hefting the blue metal in front of him out of the wall with a groan and the sound of metal on stone. The instant the cell door was removed, alarms started blaring. Asia glanced up at Coulson, eyeing the door behind them. "You're going to have some explaining to do."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elliot Raldoph sat beside Asia on the flight back, he sitting with his book in his hand, Asia sitting with her arms crossed over her chest, silent. 

"You know, I remember you, from a few years ago," the professor said after the plane had been in motion for a while. "You needed my help then, too, though at the time it was really just for feedback."

Asia nodded, before replying quietly, "I remember," she didn't look at him, didn't take her eyes off the spot on her boot she had been staring at for the past half an hour. It was easy to focus in on one spot and meditate, even with her eyes open, just let everything else melt away. 

"You were like this cyclone of energy, each new thing, each new challenge, you seemed all over it," Elliot continued, turning to study her, his eyes narrowing. "You were like a teenager who finally got their driver's license, out in the world and on their own, seeing everything as new and shiny." He paused for a moment, almost as if he were giving her a chance to respond, but she didn't. 

"You're different now," he continued, still without response. "What happened?"

Asia didn't know what to say, didn't know what to make of this assessment of herself. It was blunt, but not necessarily untrue. She looked up for the first time the whole flight, to see Leo, sitting on the opposite side of the plane, looking back at her. He didn't smile, he didn't offer a look of comfort, didn't pat the seat beside him like he used to, he just _looked_. 

"People change," Asia replied, standing up abruptly and heading towards the cockpit. Sitting next to Bobbi would be better than any more of this.


	8. Chapter 8

When they finally made it back to the base, the crew headed straight for the basement room where the grey rock with deep square holes sat quietly and contently in its cage, unmoving. 

"Well," Elliot sighed, walking around the rock, which didn't move under his request, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but-" just as the words left his mouth, the Monolith began to melt, dripping and tumbling over itself, puddling in the bottom of the glass box, making the odd sound it always made, like a chalkboard mixed with ground rocks.

Elliot froze, staring at the glass box, mouth open ever so slightly in stunned surprise, unsure of what to say. "Oh....well. That. That changes things," Elliot muttered to himself, before turning to face the group. "How..how often does it melt like that?"

"It's random," Leo replied sadly, arms crossed over his chest. "We've been unable to determine any pattern or trigger. We've checked relation to the sun, moon phases, the tide. Nothing matches."

"Nothing matches..on _this_ planet," Elliot pointed his finger at the ground, jabbing twice. "But it matches something, probably wherever this portal drops you off, but you have no way of knowing, and therefore no way of controlling it," the words fell into place, completing a perfect puzzle. "So, why come to me? I don't have those answers, I'm no expert at space travel." Elliot shrugged, looking at them all expectantly.

"Easy, you're scared of portals," Coulson replied, "You're scared of getting dragged home through one, so odds are, you've soaked up every single bit of information on them over the many, many years you've been on this planet. You know every dangerous story about a portal on Earth there is to know." 

"And, you've been eyeing all of the exits since you laid eyes on that thing," Bobbi noted, nodding towards the door behind her. "You've glanced at my knee brace a few times too, probably wondering how fast I am, if you could get past me without an issue." She was right, Asia had noted his gaze, too. The way he had started to sweat ever so slightly when he saw the Monolith. 

"You just wanted to know it was really here," Asia pointed out, staring Elliot in the eyes as his gaze drifted over to her, surprised she had spoken to him. 

"And destroy it," he muttered, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "I wanted to do that too."

"You'll have to go through me," Leo said, stepping forward, closer to Elliot, looking him in the eyes and not looking away as he had in the jail. 

Elliot stepped towards Leo, a small grin on his face. "You don't realize that I literally could, with ease," he said with a small shrug. "So what's stopping me?" 

Suddenly, Asia slid between them, head cocked slightly to the side, "Pretty sure that's me," she said quietly, flicking her wrist ever so slightly. Elliot's eyes broke her gaze to look at the space around her head. A semi circle of icicles floated around her, spinning, each point facing directly at Elliot the entire time. 

He looked at each sharp, clear point of ice before looking her back in the eyes. "So, that's what changed," he muttered.

Leo reached out from behind her, his fingertips resting on the crook of her arm, telling her it was okay, that she could drop the defense mechanism. She was surprised by his touch, so sudden and unfamiliar, but she didn't flinch. Flinching would be a sign of weakness. Instead, she closed her eyes and let the icicles melt, liquefy, and fall onto her skin, absorbing into her. She glanced over her shoulder at Leo and met his gaze. He gave her a small nod, and she nodded back.

She stepped back, falling to stand beside him, arms touching. His hand reached down and linked fingers with his own, giving her hand a tight squeeze. "Thank you," he whispered to her, causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end. He hadn't been this close, this gentle, in so long. Was he finally seeing her again? She wasn't sure, oh she wasn't sure, but right now, being sure didn't really feel like it mattered. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elliot had recognized the Monolith, as well as the old scroll of paper with a single symbol that Leo had managed to find on one of his many expeditions Asia had known nothing about and been no part of. Nevertheless, this was how they would us on a plane out to Gloucestershire, England, following the lead Elliot had for them. 

The castle was beautiful, if decrepit. Grey stone walls with vines crawling up and down, in and out of every window. Towering high above the treeline which surrounded it, many of the pillars and towers were crumbling to the ground, but the structure itself still stood. Asia glanced back at Leo as they climbed down the stairs, noting his must be nervous, because he appeared to be sweating in his grey knit suit even though the temperature was cool, moist with a breeze.

Bobbi, Coulson, Elliot, Asia, and Leo made their way into the castle between a hole where the wall had partially caved in, pulling out flashlights as they did so, trying to get some light into the space, besides the light which filtered in through some unplanned openings in the ceiling. The place felt...creepy. Something about this space made Asia feel so uncomfortable. 

Leo shined his light up onto the wall, illuminating the same word in Hebrew, "Death" carved into a brick in the wall. "We're in the right place," he said solemnly, nodding at the word, "'Death.'" 

"Maveth," Elliot said, looking at everyone else, "It actually has multiple translations to English, one being 'Death by punishment,' which is less than ideal for those of us who want to remain alive." 

"So it's a No Trespassing sign?" Coulson asked, looking up at the carving, a pit beginning to form in his stomach. "Asia...can you do a water scan?" 

Asia nodded, shutting her eyes for a moment, and stretching her mind out, searching for any signs of water, even if it was the water that built up another lifeform's body. She opened her eyes after a moment, shaking her head, "Nothing but plants. We're alone in here." 

"Good, let's keep it that way please," he nodded back towards the entrance they had climbed through. Asia flicked her eyes over, a wall of ice willing in the gaping space. Coulson gave her a small smile and a nod, a sign of a good job. She gave him a grim smile back, turning to follow Leo who was walking around the room, looking for something.

Before they could get very far through the room, there was a grinding sound, rock on rock. Asia turned back around to see where the sound was coming from, only to see Coulson pressing his hand against a specific brick in the wall. She looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

"What can I say?" The Director grinned, "Hidden doors are sort of my thing."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the entered the room at the very end of the dusty, old tunnel, a sense of apprehension hit Asia full force. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she surveyed the room before them, not stepping beyond the doorway. There was running water in here, somewhere, she could feel that instantly. But it didn't make her feel any better.

The room was a large, oval shape, and reminded her of the temple beneath San Juan. The ground was cement, and in the center of the room had a little circle drawn in the floor. There were levers and pulleys and chains everywhere, and a station with some sort of box with different buttons and switches to toggle. Containers that must have held gas of some sort to power whatever was happening in here lined the walls.

"This is an odd shape for architecture of this period..." Elliot mused, "And I never got to see this room last time. This was built after I was here. But why?" You could practically see the cogs turning in his mind as he tried to determine why, and for what purpose. 

Leo was immediately moving around the room, studying the mechanics of the devices. "Looks like late 1800's tech," he mused, not to anyone in particular, as he grabbed a red switch and pushed it upwards. As soon as he did so, electricity crackled through the room, the old bulbs above them flickering to life.

"Asia, do you feel that?" Bobbi asked, turning to the brunette, "I hear running water."

Asia could feel it, moving from whatever release had just shifted. It was like a dam had been lowered and now the water was rushing below them. She didn't like it, didn't like the function of it. She looked at Bobbi and nodded, "The switch released it...I don't know why."

The feeling of anxiety in her stomach grew as Elliot and Leo began flipping additional switches. There was a grinding sound - that terrible rock on rock again, and Asia's heartbeat skyrocketed as the circle in the center of the room started to disappear. She stepped back, stumbling into the hallway, the others so distracted by what was happening they didn't even notice. She double over, puking into the gravel. She puked until her stomach was completely empty, then she stumbled back into the room just in time to hear Leo speaking.

"This was built to control the Monolith. To open the portal at will."


	9. Chapter 9

Coulson radioed the Base shortly after and asked the remainder of the team to load up the Monolith and bring it to them. It took a little of convincing to get Mack to actually do it, but he wasn't going to ignore a direct order from their Director. So the plan was set, as Asia knew it would be the moment that those words had left Leo's mouth. Of course they would, if it meant bringing Jemma home. Which obviously, Asia wanted to happen as well. But she couldn't shake the feeling of anxiety that this room brought her. She didn't know what it was that made her feel so....off, but there was something here.

So Asia watched by, arms crossed over her shoulders, as Elliot and Leo ran around the room, figuring out what switches and toggles would help them get their job done. As Mack and Daisy entered, Asia turned around, smiling at Daisy, still visibly uncomfortable. Daisy had a similar look of unease on her face and Asia gave her a small nod. 

"Everything alright?" The brunette asked her friend.

"Yea...just frustrated with the results of Joey's latest observation. Andrew Garner recommends three more months of time away, time being looked at beneath a microscope," Daisy sighed, shaking her head, still glancing nervously around the room. "It's frustrating as hell, how are we ever supposed to build a team this way? Also, where _are_ we? It gives me the heeby jeebies." 

"Same..." Asia replied, "Whatever is going on here, I don't like it...And it's not just because that thing is in here now," She nodded towards the pit in the center of the room where the Monolith now sat, unmoving. 

"Mack, hey, Mack," Leo snapped his finger at their teammate, then pointed towards the wall, "Can you flip that white switch? Not the one already up. The one that's down. Please and thank you."

Mack nodded and reached for the switch, giving it some effort to push the lever upwards. It was rusty, and groaned as Mack put his weight into it, but it gave eventually. After it clicked into place, the room shuddered ever so slightly, and then a mechanical whirring sound began to emanate throughout the room. The gears along the wall started to turn and pullies started to move up and down.

The entire room started to rumble and shake and suddenly, in the pit, the Monolith melted into liquid, sloshing around inside the circular hole, until it filled the pit like a little pond, weird hexadecimal shapes appearing and disappearing on the surface. Leo stepped forward, taking out a flashlight and shining it down into the pit. 

"It's staying open!" He called out, looking up at all of them. "I need more light. More light!" Mack sprang into action, grabbing a larger flashlight and bringing it over.

Suddenly, an ear piercing sound started to fill Asia's ears, like nails on a chalkboard mixed with metal on metal, flooding her system. It was migraine inducing, painful, and full volume. She placed a hand on Daisy's shoulder, nearly doubling over, only to notice her friend was experiencing the exact same pain. Asia was in such pain that she didn't even see Coulson tossing Fitz a flair, nor Fitz shooting it into the pool. She didn't hear Mack shouting that there was a problem. 

"H-help," Daisy muttered out, pressing her hand to her forehead, while still trying to help support Asia up. Asia couldn't see straight, everyone had doubles and her vision was foggy at the edges. Asia put her hands to her ears, trying to block out the sound, when she felt something wet on her face, her hands. She pulled her hands from her ears and saw blood in her palms. She wiped one shaky finger at her cheek and found blood dripping from her eyes as well. She staggered, even with the support of Daisy beside her. What was happening? 

It was overwhelming, the sound, the pricing noise at her ears, and she fell to the ground, eyes rolling back for a moment. She didn't even realize she had passed out until she was sitting back up, the sound gone, the gears no longer moving, Daisy in the dirt beside her.

Coulson had rushed over to his two collapsed agents, shaking their shoulders gently until each returned to the land of the living. "Are you alright?" He asked, "What happened?" 

"Didn't you hear that sound?" Asia asked, wiping her sleeve against her face to try and get the blood all off. "It was...disorienting."

"That's an understatement," Daisy groaned, propping herself up against Asia's shoulder. "That sound was killing me. Whatever the machine was doing...that sound was the audio version of the pits of Hell." Asia nodded in agreement.

"What sound are you talking about?" Coulson asked, confusion displayed plainly on his face. Asia and Daisy looked at each other, brows furrowed. They had both heard the sound, they weren't crazy. Whatever they had heard hurt them so badly that they had become incapacitated.

"You must have heard it," Asia shook her head, "It was...it was everywhere."

"I couldn't hear anything else, couldn't focus on anything else," Daisy explained further, but Coulson still seemed completely oblivious. "But it's not happening now...because the machine isn't running." 

"The machine is broken," Coulson explained, nodding towards a giant metal wheel laying on the ground the Mack and Leo were working on lifting back up. "Seems it's been too many years since it was in use yet, and certainly wasn't ready to be used again so quickly, for so long. We're looking at fix options right now." 

Asia looked over at Leo, who was clearly frantic to find a solution to the fix. It made her heart ache. And it hurt her that he didn't even seem to notice her there, lying on the floor, in pain. She looked away, not wanting to think about that, not wanting the others to see her think about that. 

Daisy looked over at Asia, then at Leo, then back to her friend. "Coulson, can we just have a minute?" She asked, resting her hand on top of Asia's. 

"Of course, anything you need. If you're feeling faint again, please call one of us over," He nodded, standing up and moving to go chat with Bobbi.

"This has been really hard on you," Daisy said quietly, "I know that it has. But I'm here for you. We take care of each other, right?" She squeezed Asia's hand softly, trying to get her friend to look her in the eyes. 

Asia looked up, and gave her a small, but sad smile. But she squeezed Daisy's hand back. "We're in this together," She whispered back. "Whatever it takes." 

"We'll get Jemma back soon enough, and then things will all go back to normal," Daisy replied, leaning back against the metal container behind them. She meant her words, she truly did. But just because she meant them, didn't mean she knew if they were true or not. Things could get worse, situationally, than they were now. She looked at her friend, who seemed so much smaller than she used to be, and closed her eyes, sending a hope out into the universe, a hope that she was right.


	10. Chapter 10

"Vibrations! That's it!" Leo shouted suddenly, startling both of the girls who sat on the ground, still leaning on one another. "We don't need to fix it! It doesn't matter, really, we just need to..." The man trailed off, turning to look at Daisy, his eyes widening. 

Daisy stared back at him for a moment, before the realization clicked. "You don't need to fix it, because I can operate the portal." She stood shakily to her feet, stretching her shoulders, cracking her knuckles, then reaching down to help Asia up.

"Precisely!" Leo said encouragingly. "This entire room was made to resonate at a specific frequency..." he spun around, turning to face Daisy again, his gaze barely flickering to Asia ever so slightly, taking in a small bit of dried blood by the corner of her eye. He wanted to stop and ask what happened but right now there was no time."Daisy, can you do it?" He asked her. 

"Yea, I can," she said, glancing over at Asia. "This will probably hurt like hell again," she said to the brunette, shaking her head ever so slightly. 

"Probably," Asia admitted in response, brushing off her black pants. "But I'll be with you every step of the way." She gave Daisy a nod in return. 

Leo let out a sigh of relief, turning back to Coulson. "Alright, we need to set up, um, set up a few things. We should probably, er, bring in some stabilizers to make sure things don't..things don't collapse. Um.."

"I'm on it," Coulson nodded, surveying the room. Luckily, they had the supplies needed on the Bus, at least...they should.

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Mack had finished drilling the last bolt into a pulley system, standing up and clapping his hands on his legs in success. Asia surveyed the rest of the room, moving to stand beside Daisy. Coulson joined the two Inhumans, sighing as he stepped beside them.

"So you think you can do this? You remember the frequency?" He asked Daisy, looking down at the Monolith, then over at his agent. 

"I remember it more than I wish I did," Daisy shook her head, recalling the ear-piercing sound. "I don't know how long I can hold it, but I'll try to keep it up as long as possible."

"It could kill you," Coulson replied, very mater-of-factly. There wasn't any concern in his tone, but both of the women could tell that he was. It was his job to worry, his job to be concerned about the wellbeing of his agents. And he worried about all of them, but especially his Bus-kids. The ones who had been with him from the very beginning and would be till the very end. "If it is too much, you pull back, ok?" He said, nodding at Daisy. 

"I'll be with her," Asia nodded, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens." She placed a hand on Daisy's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. Daisy looked over at her reassuringly, with a nod and a small smile. 

"Alright," Coulson nodded after a moment. "I trust you two to have each other's backs. If it's too much, pull out." And then he walked over towards Leo and Mack, overwatching what they were doing, Leo typing away on a tablet. 

"You sure you're up for this?" Asia asked, letting the concern show on her face once their Director was gone. That frequency last time...it had hurt the two of them badly, and no one else had been able to tell. Starting the portal back up would affect them similarly, or at least they thought. 

"Yea, I got this," Daisy affirmed. "If I start to stagger..hold me up?" She asked her friend, her partner in crime.

"Of course," Asia agreed, with a quick nod. She wouldn't let Daisy down, not with all this weight at stake. If they managed this, then they had managed a way to bring Jemma home. And whatever that meant, whatever it meant for her, whatever it meant for Leo, they had to bring her home.

The two girls watched as Bobbi hooked up a glass sphere to a long cable, a camera suspended inside. They were going to drop it in once the portal was open, get a visual on what exactly they were dealing with, get prepared. Be ready to save their teammate, come hell or high water. Bobbi looked at Coulson, who looked at Daisy, giving her a nod. 

Daisy and Asia exchanged a glance before Daisy slowly held her arms up, hands outstretched, vibrations beginning to ricochet off the walls. As Daisy tuned into the exact sound, the vibrating frequency they had both head so painfully earlier, a lightbulb exploded. Daisy shook her head, a finger twitching, as the sound started to erupt from her. She thrust her hands down, towards the pit, bouncing the vibrations off of the Monolith. Instantly, the Monolith melted as the entire room shook with her power.

"Hold it open as long as you can," Leo said suddenly, over the sound of the shaking. And suddenly, he jumped, the cable meant for the camera hooked onto his belt. Asia lurched forward, trying to grab him, as she heard Coulson shouting. But it was too late, he had disappeared into the morphing pit of a portal.

Asia was half tempted to jump herself, but the painful, earsplitting sound hit her ears, causing her to wobble back a step. She turned, looking at Daisy, whose face was twisted in pain as she held the vibrations, the room around them still shaking, the support beams starting to wobble back and forth. 

"Don't let it close," Asia whispered, as she stepped up under Daisy's arms, using her shoulders to completely support her friend, taking the weight off of her. 

Mack grabbed onto one of the support beams, "Hey Frosty, a little help here," he shouted to her, looking at the metal he was trying to hold down. Asia nodded, shooting her hand out, a blast of ice enveloping the beam, keeping it in place. She looked at the other side of the room, extending her other arm, freezing the other beam in place. As the shaking continued, her ice started to crack, so she kept sending the beams of ice, one from each arm, straining against the sound hitting her brain and holding her friend up. But she had to keep it up. She couldn't let that portal close.

Not when the man she loved had just jumped inside of it.

"Asia," Daisy whispered shakily. Asia knew what her whisper meant. She could she her friend's arms starting to shake with the tension, knew the sound was getting to her too. 

"Lean on me, put it all on me," Asia whispered back, gritting her teeth as she struggled to keep her powers flowing. "Just don't close it," she said. _Please_ she thought, sending the hope out into the universe. _Please don't let me lose him._

She felt something wet on her shoulder a glanced back, seeing blood dripping once more from Daisy's nose and onto her. She was sure her own face looked similar, but didn't dwell on it. She couldn't think of anything besides keeping this portal open.

Coulson took one look at the two Inhumans, barely able to stay standing, fueled by nothing but sure will, and let out a string of expletives. "Get him back here, right now!" He ordered to Mack, who sprang immediately into action, running to the pulley that held the rope, cranking back on a lever. 

Immediately, the rope started to churn in reverse, pulling itself out of the hole. Hopefully, bringing Leo with it. 

"Asia..." Daisy muttered again, her voice weaker this time. 

"Please..." Asia whispered back, the pleading emotion staining her voice, her heart aching at the thought of losing him to that portal. Even though things were off right now, even though she wasn't sure that they were even still together, it was undeniable that Asia Monroe loved Leopold Fitz and always would. She didn't know how to go existing on the plane without him. 

"I can't hold it," Daisy cried out, squeezing her eyes shut and straining against the sound that slammed against her skull.

Coulson was shouting, but Asia couldn't hear the words he was saying. She couldn't even hear herself saying over and over, "Don't let it close." The screeching sound was too intense, it was all she could hear. She and Daisy locked eyes as Daisy's hands quivered and she faltered, falling to the ground, Asia falling beside her. 

The Monolith exploded, bits of gravel and dust filling the air around them. 

"No," Asia mumbled, scrambling to her hands and knees, tears starting to spill over her eyes, mingling with the blood that was still dripping down her cheeks. "No, no, no," she scrambled towards the lip of the hole, staring in at the shattered bits of the Monolith below. Her heart felt shattered along with them, as small as the gravel below her. Two of her tears dripped off of her cheeks, falling into the pit. It couldn't be true. He couldn't be gone, gone forever. 

Suddenly, the gravel shifted. Asia looked up, her eyes fixing on the spot. She saw a form push its way out from beneath the rubble, curly hair, a fair but toned forearm. Leo. Leo was in there. He was alive. He hadn't been trapped. The gravel shifted further, a second body, red hair, frail, tiny, curled beside him. Jemma Simmons was down in that hole, too.

Asia fell back onto the bricks behind her, legs shaking, the world still feeling black and fuzzy around her. Suddenly, she felt Mack's supportive arms scooping her up from the floor. "You're alright, Elsa, I got you," he said, using one of the many nicknames he coined for her. As he picked her up, folding her into his chest, Asia let out a sob, the tears completely letting loose.


	11. Chapter 11

So they had done it. They had saved Jemma. Everyone was back safely. Everything was back to normal. 

Except it wasn't. Asia still slept alone. She wasn't sure where Leo was sleeping. His old room, maybe? Alone, under his quilt he brought that his mother had given him long ago, instead of beside his girlfriend, who slept in an old tattered sweater of his, the spice of his aftershave long gone from the fabric.

It wasn't that she wasn't happy over Jemma's return. She was overjoyed, really. She had never expected their journey to that crumbling castle would bear this much fruit. They had saved her. And Asia was thrilled. It was just that things were so different now. Bobbi and Leo spent most of their time helping Jemma re-acclimate to her home. Hunter was gone. Daisy was mostly focusing on their Inhuman project, though she made sure to check in from time to time. Asia was alone, mostly.

And she was alone in one of the training rooms, hammering away at a punching bag, when Daisy came to find her. Asia looked up at the sound of footsteps, a few loose strands of hair hanging over her face which had escaped from her ponytail in her punching frenzy.

"I need you," was all Daisy said, "Let's go." Without question, Asia headed for the door, towards her friend. Whatever it was seemed urgent, and Asia would follow Daisy to the ends of Earth if needed.

As they walked down the halls together, Asia redid her ponytail, catching all the stray strands back into their proper places. "So, what's going on?" She asked. She recognized that way Daisy's chin jutted out just a bit, the grit in her teeth. Inside, the brunette was seething, but Asia couldn't guess as to why. 

"It's Lincoln," Daisy replied with a frown, "The ATCU, that stupid 'alien task force' the government thinks is necessary, put a hit out on him. He's basically America's Most Wanted right now." She shuddered a little bit, thinking of the blonde being hunted, never resting to sleep completely, always feeling on edge, feeling watched. She didn't want that for anyone, but especially not for him.

"For real?" Asia asked, astonished. What did Lincoln do to get all this attention on him? Lincoln had been pretty good at laying low, even when that incident occurred at the hospital. "How did you find out?" 

"One of the tech guys, who monitor all the different TV stations, reported it," Daisy sighed, "It's all over the news." She pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Are we going to find him?" Asia asked, cracking her knuckles as they rounded a corner, heading towards the Lab. She already knew the answer, but she asked anyways.

"We're going to try," Daisy replied, stealing herself for the conversation she was about to have. She knew she didn't have to convince Asia to go. They just needed to convince their director.

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Inside the Lab stood Bobbi, Mack, Coulson, and Leo. Asia's eyes locked in on Leo the second she saw him. He was wearing grey slacks, and a pale blue button up, sleeves rolled up to his forearms. He looked good, stressed, but good. The kind of good that made her want to pull him in close and just hold onto him for a moment. She wrapped her hands tightly over her chest to stop herself.

He looked back at her as she entered with Daisy, his eyes locking onto her with a steal focus. She had working out again, all alone down in the basement. He wondered why she didn't come up to the Lab anymore. Had he done something to make her feel unwelcome there? That used to be the space where they all gathered, but these days it seemed like it was just him. Never Daisy, never Asia, even with Jemma back, just him. But now here she was, standing mere feet from him. He fought the urge to walk right up to her and kiss her forehead...but he didn't.

When Coulson saw them enter, he nodded to the others, then turned and headed towards the two girls. It didn't take a psychic to see something was up. "What's wrong?" he asked, as soon as he got to them.

"Lincoln is in trouble," Daisy said quickly, her tone enough to make Coulson worried.

"Let's walk," Coulson said, nodding towards the hall. He, Mack, Asia, and Daisy, all made their way into the hall, Daisy and Coulson taking the lead, Asia and Mack falling in step behind them. 

"The ATCU put out a nationwide bulletin on him," Daisy explained, gesticulating with her hands. "The entire US population is looking for him, not to mention the FBI, CIA, excrete. It's bad, Coulson. They put his face out there."

"Risky play...sounds like someone's getting desperate," Coulson replied as they power walked down the halls.

"Well, what do you think they'll do when they find him?" Daisy protested, handing him a tablet with the bulletin displayed on it. They turned into the break room, stopping by the metal island in the center. As he looked at it, she kept speaking. "We can't just leave him out there. What if it was me? He needs help."

"Haven't we tried that already?" Mack asked with a slight frown on his lips. He didn't want to see Daisy disappointed, again. "We've tried to help him before, he wasn't what I would call receptive."

"This time will be different. They're hunting him like an animal. We need to give him a way out," Daisy tried again to convince them. They couldn't just leave him out there. She looked to Asia pleadingly, wanting her to help make their case.

"She has a point," Asia sighed. "If it were one of us, you would come." She looked from Mack to Coulson to Daisy. "You wouldn't hesitate. You would come." The two men looked at each other, then looked down. She was right. Of course they would. 

"You're right, both of you," Coulson agreed, nodding. "We need to bring him in. Now." 

"Well, it'll be a little harder than that," Daisy sighed. "I have no idea where he is. Any of our old methods of conversation are all radio silent. I've tried all day, nothing." 

Mack and Coulson shared a look, causing Asia to raise an eyebrow. She looked at them, then at Daisy, then back to the two men. They knew something. Something they weren't sharing. Daisy looked at her, eyes widening. "You might as well tell us whatever your secret is," Asia said with a tilt of her head. "Hiding things from spies usually doesn't turn out super well." 

"We know how to find Lincoln," Coulson said, surprisingly nonchalantly. 

"What do you _mean_ you know how to find him?" Daisy asked, throwing her arms out. "Is he responding to you? Because that'd be a first." 

Mack sighed, shaking his head. "She's not going to like this," he directed his sentence towards Coulson with a shake of his head. 

"She doesn't have to like it," Coulson shrugged, "I made a call, and clearly it was a good one. The tracker is coming in handy now." He turned to Daisy, "Mack put a tracker on Lincoln. We can give you his exact location. Think that'll help you track him down?" 

Asia could see Daisy was about to shout, so she put her hand on her friend's shoulder, sending a jolt of cold shivering through the woman's body. "It's not worth it right now," she said with a nod of her head, "That can come later. Right now, we have tracking to do."


	12. Chapter 12

Daisy was able to track him down. Surprise Surprise. He had bought a burner cell and she was able to find him on cameras and look up the number attached to it. And so, she called. Turns out, shocker, Lincoln didn't love the idea of having a tracker put in his arm by SHIELD. He had blown his tracker as soon as she called him, probably zapped it right out with his powers. Now, they'd have to come up with another plan. And with the ATCU blasting his face all over the news, they had to do it fast. A literal manhunt had started, and they seemed to be on the losing team.

Daisy wanted to lead a small squad out in search for him, no surprise there. Daisy would probably have laid down her life in a ridiculous way if it meant saving him, Asia could tell by the look of determination set in her friend's face. But Coulson wasn't to keen on that idea. Even if Daisy and Asia weren't afraid of the ATCU, that organization was sure afraid of them. That meant bringing out the big guns against them, and Coulson knew it. And yet, they couldn't just leave Lincoln out there alone.

So that was how Asia found herself on a Quinnjet flying somewhere over the United States while they tried to locate him. HQ was buzzing them all sorts of potential leads, but they had all turned up nothing so far. They had been jetting back and forth all day, with hopes of something, but every lead had came up dry. That is, until the call came through. 

Asia was snoozing, the tiniest little bit of drool escaping the corner of her lip, when Daisy shook her shoulder, stirring her to wake. "Lincoln called me," the brunette explained. "He needs us, we're routing to him now." Her brow was furrowed thick with worry. "And he thinks the ATCU is on their way to him now."

Asia crackled her knuckles, nodding. "Let's go get your guy then," she replied, taking a deep breath and feeling the water all around them, in the air, in the clouds, everywhere. She mentally noted all of it, wanting to keep as much near her as possible. While further studies of her anatomy had shown her body was composed of additional water percentages that she could expel as needed, pulling water from around them was always easier.

"That's the plan," Daisy nodded. "He's hiding until we get there. Coulson is aware. We're going to go in, get him, get out. Mack will stand guard, you and I move together to make sure we can avoid any unexpected...complications." Daisy explained their plan, pulling up a blueprint of an apartment complex to show Asia, crossing out the room where Lincoln was supposed to be. Her plan was very well laid out, down to the last note. Daisy wanted to make sure this went off without a hitch.

"Complications like a government organization that wants to kidnap and probably murder us?" Asia asked, raising one thin eyebrow in question, nodding as she looked over the blueprints.

"Wow, did you develop mind reading as part of your gift now too?" Daisy asked sarcastically. But, Asia noted, that was a good sign. Daisy was still joking. Whenever shit _really_ hit the fan, whenever her friend got into a deep spiral that was hard to dig herself out of, the jokes stopped. And if the jokes stopped, you knew something was wrong. 

"Nah, just smart," Asia replied with a small grin. "Alright, the plan makes sense to me. Don't think it'll be weird having me watch your first meetup with Lincoln since everything went down?" She asked in jest, watching Daisy's cheeks turn slightly pink at the thought. 

"Just turn and face a wall or something," Daisy muttered, rolling her eyes. "I've seen you and Fitz together plenty of times...." She trailed off, realizing the sensitivity of the subject as Asia physically winced. "But Simmons is back now, so that'll be starting up all over again. You two, you two are meant to be together. If that's not the truth then there really isn't hope out there for the rest of us." Asia shoved Daisy's shoulder lightly, but smiled in thanks. She hoped Daisy was right.

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Bobbi was stretching her knee, sliding it back and forth with the aid of a machine, when Leo Fitz walked in, typing something on his phone. The agent stopped her stretches to look over at the scientist, who was finishing typing away something on his phone.

"How's your therapy going?" Leo asked, tucking his phone into his waistband. He had a nervous air about him which Bobbi picked up on immediately, his fingers twitching just ever so slightly as he talked. Even out of the field, her skills in perception hadn't gone rusty. Neither had her skills in _de_ ception.

"It's going fine. The usual. I just wish I was back out there," Bobbi replied, shrugging as she sat up, adjusting her shoulders ever so slightly to make herself appear more open to conversation as she readied herself to ask the questions she really wanted to know the answers to. "So, how's Jemma doing?" She let the words fall casually out of her mouth, worried Fitz would be able to visibly see the way her heartbeat picked up as soon as she asked the question. 

"She's been...distant," Leo replied, sliding his phone into his front pocket for a moment. "I'm not sure I know how to help her really, other than what I've already done. I brought her back, but I don't know how to help her heal." 

Bobbi wasn't altogether surprised by this response. Of course Jemma was still going to be in a sort of disarray. She had only just returned, and who knows how long she had been gone, how time functioned on the planet she had been trapped on. Bobbi, too, wished she could help her. She made the red head tea every day, that was her small gesture.

"Fitz, what did you remind me of every day when I started my rehab?" Bobbi asked the scientist, raising an eyebrow at him. She wanted to keep the conversation going, glean all the information she could about how Jemma was doing. 

"Patience, I know," Leo replied with a frustrated sigh, looking over at Bobbi with a shake of his head. She was right, he knew that, but that didn't make it any easier. "It's just difficult. We used to be best friends, now it's like she doesn't feel comfortable speaking with me. I don't know how to fix that."

"Well," Bobbi paused for a moment, musing over her various potential ideas. "You need to find a way to remind her that we are all still her support system. Rebuilding that trust is difficult. You have to sit down with her, one on one, and make her understand that. But be gentle about it, she still has so much to get back." 

"You're right!" Leo snapped his fingers as if a light bulb had just gone off in his head, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket, typing rapidly. "I still have that restaurant reservation that Asia and I were supposed to use before Jemma disappeared. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I used it with Jemma. She would definitely understand."

Bobbi wasn't even sure he was listening to her, and thinking back to all of the interactions she had recently with Asia, she was pretty sure the brunette wouldn't understand, and very much would mind. She opened her mouth to object, but Leo was already turning and walking towards the door. "Thanks, Bobbi," he called out over his shoulder with a wave, "You're brilliant!"


	13. Chapter 13

"Alright, you know the drill," Daisy said, adjusting the metal sleeves that covered her forearms. "We're going to get in and get out as quickly as possible, before the ATCU even knows that we're here," she looked over at Asia, who was tugging on the strings of her own wristlets, prepping for the mission in front of them. 

"I know," Asia replied. "You sure you want me with you? You and Lincoln not going to want some alone time?" She looked at her friend, the tone coming off as light, even though she meant it in all seriousness. She couldn't imagine how she would act if she hadn't seen Leo in almost a year. She would like time with just him, just to hold him, to talk, without anyone else around. She imagined Daisy would want something of the same. Sure, her friend had said no earlier, but she wanted to give Daisy another out if she really wanted it.

Daisy gave an over exaggerated sigh, rolling her eyes and look at her friend. "Asia. I'm sure. I need you with me, in case anything happens. And Lincoln trusts you too." Daisy then pulled her friend into a tight hug. Asia hadn't expected it, but gave her friend a tight hug back.

As they made their way through the complex, Daisy looked over one of the railings and let out a low string of curse words. "The ATCU is already here," she radioed to Mack, who was following shortly behind them. "We're going to have to make this a quick one. Is the extraction pod ready?" 

"Locked and loaded if we need it," came Mack's reply, as he too took a look at their approaching, unwanted company. He had hoped they would make it out without the ATCU even knowing, but it looked like they weren't about to get that lucky today.

Daisy and Asia tore up the stairs, taking each set two stairs at a time. They needed to get to Lincoln, and they needed to get there fast. "Coast is clear," Mack's voice came over comms, "If you guys are making your move, make it now." 

When they reached the appropriate floor, Daisy knocked three times on the white wood. The two women looked at one another anxiously. What if this was all an elaborate plot to catch the two of them? They were certainly vulnerable right now, but neither was about to go down without a fight.

Thankfully, moments later, the door opened with a slight groan, revealing Lincoln's worried face. His beard had grown out and was scraggly. He was wearing a worn leather jacket and a dark blue shirt. He pulled the door open for them, allowing the two girls to come in. Asia shut it behind, letting Daisy approach him. 

"You're having a hell of a day, aren't you?" Daisy greeted with a sigh. Asia wasn't sure if it was a sigh of relief that he was alright, or a sigh of pity over everything which was happening. 

"I killed him, Daisy, I...uh...me, I killed him," Lincoln stuttered. Asia turned around the face the door, letting Daisy go to him, further into the apartment building. Asia didn't need to be privy to whatever they were about to discuss. Whatever had happened had certainly done a number on Lincoln. Asia had never seen him look so hollow. If anyone would be able to bring the light back to him, it would be Daisy.

If it was one thing Daisy was good at, it was empowering speeches. This one was surprisingly motivational, but Asia attributed that towards her feelings towards him. She could hear the sounds of them sharing a kiss, for the first time in a long, long time, and she tried to completely tune it out, allow them to have their moment in peace. Her thoughts drifted to Leo, to wondering what he might be doing at that moment. If he was thinking about her too.

A sudden knock at the door ripped her out of the daydream. She turned to look back at Daisy, then towards the door, taking a step back towards the other two Inhumans. The door opened a crack and Mack leaned around, peering into the room. 

Asia let out a sigh of relief, "Mack, it's you. Good. Is the pod on the way?" She asked, smiling at her teammate. 

Mack looked at her, a pool of disappointment in his eyes that Asia hadn't seen there in a long, long time. Not since...last year, when he first joined their team. "There's...been a change of plans," he said quietly, dropping his gaze to look to the floor. Behind him, there was movement. Asia's gaze flicked back at the slight motion, and suddenly, out of nowhere, ten ATCU soldiers filed into the room, guns raised. 

Asia began backing up, standing beside Daisy and Lincoln, putting as much space between the three of them and the soldiers. She would need the space if she was about to do what she might have to do. And then, the man who was considered the right hand of the ATCU entered the room, striding slowly, eyes raking over all of them as he sneered. It gave Asia the shivers. 

"We're turning Lincoln over to the ATCU," Mack uttered words that Asia never thought she would hear him say. "It's Coulson's orders." 

"What?" Asia asked, looking back at Lincoln, then to Mack again. "Like hell we are." Lincoln looked terrified. Asia could already feel her body tensing, her sense of the water around her becoming even more apparent. Whenever she got on edge, that sense always became more heightened, like her body was getting ready of its own accord to protect her.

"Mack," Daisy stepped forward, resting her hand on Asia's upper arm to have her stand down. "You need to get Coulson on the phone, _right now_." It wasn't a question, it was an order. 

Mack shook his head, "He told me this was the only way, that he would explain everything back at headquarters." He turned to Lincoln, "But you don't have to worry. I know this seems bad, but Coulson told me to make sure you knew you would be safe. He's arranged for us to be able to keep an eye on you, make sure you're alright." 

"Can we get on with this?" The right hand man, a bald, angry guy, growled at Mack.

"This is absolutely crazy," Daisy protested, grabbing Mack's arm. "We aren't going to do this." 

"We have to," Mack insisted, shaking his head, letting out a sigh. "Daisy, he said this was the only way." It couldn't be, it couldn't be. Asia pressed a hand to her temple. This couldn't be right.

"Take him into custody," The guy from the ATCU ordered. As the soldiers started to step forward, Asia's eyes flicked to Lincoln. Instinctively, she knew to step back. 

Lincoln cast his hands towards the floor, streams of lightning lashing out from his fingers and onto the carpet, over the feet of the men, knocking them stunned, backwards, to the ground. Tracks of burnt black traced the carpet in the pattern his electric had made. And then he was gone, bolting out of the door. 

"Should we go after him?" One of the soldiers asked, groaning as he managed to stand back up. 

"No..." the man in charge said, looking at his men, the over to Daisy and Asia. "We will just take these two in, instead." And then he grinned a sickly grin, the hairs on the back of Asia's neck standing alert. Instantly, all of the soldiers guns were raised, targeting the two brunette women. 

"Hey now, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Mack asked, stepping towards the bald guy. "You better get your boss on the phone because you sure as hell aren't taking these two in. Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged," the man growled, not taking his eyes off of the two Inhuman women. He wasn't about to turn up at work empty handed. 

"You really think that's a good idea?" Asia asked, hands clenching to fists, already drawing the water in the building subtly up towards them. "I don't think you brought enough men, or guns." Asia was pretty sure he was bluffing about taking the two of them instead. Did he understand that she could freeze their trigger fingers solid before they would even be able to pull them?

"You have no idea what we can do," Daisy backed her friend up, her tone clearly threatening towards the ATCU man. They weren't going anywhere, except to go find where Lincoln had ran off to. Sure as hell weren't going with these guys.

"Oh, I'm fully aware," he replied with a smug grin, "That's why I've got snipers posted on every roof nearby, ready to engage if need be. What range do the two of you have? How fast do you think you can react?" 

Asia closed her eyes and let her sensations, her feelings, expand outward, rippling through the ground and into the buildings, traveling up, until she was able to sense three life and water sources. She could feel the water their bodies were composed of, feel the blood, water, which pulsed through their veins. Bingo. She opened her eyes back up, and Daisy noticed they were glowing, just ever so slightly, blue in the irises. 

"Wanna find out?" Asia replied back, challengingly, taking a step forward. Mack looked at her, then at the man, and suddenly drew his pistol, aiming it at the man's bald head. 

"Trust me, buddy, you don't want to find out," Mack said defensively. No one threatened his partners like that and got away with it, not on his watch. 

Suddenly, a phone began to ring. The ATCU team lead looked down at his belt, then back up at Mack. "This may just be your lucky day," he said, pulling the phone from his pocket and answering it, walking towards the back of the room so he could speak in peace. Mack didn't take his aim from the man's head. 

"Copy that," they heard him say into the phone, before turning to face them. "Looks like your luck panned out. Men, let's go," he nodded at the soldiers, who all fell in line behind him. 

Asia finally let her fists unclench, as she turned to look at Daisy. "What the hell _was_ that?" She asked, jutting an arm out towards the door. 

"I don't know," Daisy replied, staring at the empty doorway. "Let's get back to base and find out."


	14. Chapter 14

Mack and Asia were sitting on the couch playing Halo, when Daisy walked up, carrying a cloud of frustration with her. Asia looked up at her friend inbetween shots at the enemy on screen, her brow furrowing. 

"What's wrong?" She asked, shifting so she could look at her as Mack paused the game.

“Nothing more than the usual...” Daisy let out a sigh. “Sounds like we’re teaming up with the ATCU now, so that’s a thing.”

Daisy looked to her friend for a reaction and got exactly what she was looking for. Asia’s brows were furrowed in disgust. “Doesn’t sounds like something you were behind.” She didn't want to believe it was even true. Partnering with them? The people who had just tried to take Daisy and herself in? Seemed like a stupid idea to her.

"Definitely not," Daisy replied with a frown. "This one is all on Coulson. Part of the deal to stop a war and keep them from trying to take us in today, I guess," she shrugged, "Still seems pretty stupid to me." Asia nodded in agreement. 

"I do have to say, though," Daisy continued, looking between Asia and Mack. "Thank you, for not saying anything to Coulson, about...everything. The stuff between me and Lincoln while we were in that room." Daisy knew full-well that comms were on the whole time and Asia was literally in the room. Either of them could easily have told Coulson what she had said, how she felt, and then Daisy would be off any future missions to bring him home. 

Asia looked at Mack and gave him a small smile and a shrug. Mack looked at Asia then sighed, leaning forward and grabbing a third controller from the table in front of them. "Here, Tremors, we could really use some backup right now." Asia smirked up at Daisy, nodding encouragingly.

Daisy grinned and took the controller, Asia scooting over on the couch so Daisy could plop down in between them. "Alright, pal, no armature hour now," Asia said teasingly. "Mack and I are trying to beat our record." 

The three settled in together on the couch, zoning into the game on the TV in front of them. It was nice, for a little while, to just zone out, with friends, and not focus on all of the bad things which had happened that day. If they focused on just this moment, and nothing else, they could almost pretend that it hadn't happened. They could almost pretend that everything was okay. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three of them sat together in a black SUV, outside of an apartment complex, waiting for word from Coulson, whether it be to head in and stand down. 

"How long do you think we'll be out here?" Asia asked, leaning back in the back row, bases of her feet pressed up against the window. She knew Coulson would hate that, footprints on the glass, but she didn't really care at the moment. They had been sitting in this car for over an hour now.

"Chill out, Frostbite," Mack teased. "It can't be much longer now. We'll have word soon." 

And he was right. Almost as soon as the words had exited his mouth, Coulson's voice came through on their comms. "Daisy, Asia, Mack, move in now!" Their Director ordered. "Someone is attacking. Alisha is down." The three were up in a flash, pushing out of the car and running into the building.

They already knew which apartment room to head for. They had mapped this entire thing out beforehand, down to the last letter. Sprinting up the stairs, they made it to the fourth floor quickly, and they all slowed to a quiet walk, drawing their guns. Daisy came around the corner first, looking into the quiet apartment room. The door had been torn or blow off, bits of wood and splinters scattered about. Alisha's body, or, the body of one of her clones, was laying on the floor, red hair pooled around her head like blood.

"No, no, no," Daisy cursed, putting her gun into its holster and crouching down near the woman, pressing her hands to her chest. There was no sign of movement, no heartbeat, no feeling of breath. "Dammit!" she cursed. 

Asia stood over her friend, surveying the room with squinted eyes. "Daisy," she said suddenly, stopping her gaze, staring at a giant, burnt hole in the wall, similar to the one Lash, the giant, monster of an Inhuman, had cut into the wall at the hospital only a week or so ago. The two women looked at each other, eyes locking. While Mack was still radioing Coulson for backup, Asia helped Daisy stand back up. Then, the two took off through the hole, which lead out to a flight of stairs. Without a second thought, they were running in the down the hall and descending the stairway. They didn’t think twice about putting themselves in danger ; the pair never did 

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Leopold Fitz found himself staring down at the bodies of three dead Inhumans, two with gaping craters in their chests. He and Bobbi were taking biological samples, but dead bodies still never did sit well with him. Didn’t typically sit well with most people, except for Simmons. And Asia, who he knew had been dropping bodies for years without another thought. He wasn’t as strong as she was, he thought. He didn’t understand how she managed the weight of it all some days.

At that moment, as he looked down at two Inhumans with gaping craters where their chests used to be, he felt overwhelmed with a sense of dread. It weighed heavy in his gut, as he turned to stare over at the hole carved into the wall. He knew Asia and Daisy had disappeared through it, and all he could think about now was what awaited _her_ down there. She could die. This thing was hunting Inhumans, and she, for better or worse, fell into that category. She couldn't be far from the top of its hit list. 

He swallowed hard at the thought, trying to keep the bile down. He turned to look at their director. "Coulson, sir? Backup is on its way, yea?" He asked, his nerves betraying him with the crack in his voice. Coulson could tell just by glancing at him that he was worried, but the tone gave it all away. "They've been down there for a while, we haven't heard anything back. It doesn't exactly sound good."

Coulson nodded, "Yes, Fitz, backup is on the way. They'll be alright." The kid had had a hell of a year, sometimes it felt better to humor him. Nevertheless, Coulson pressed the active button on comms and tried to radio them again. All he got was a few cracked words and white noise. The layers of concrete beneath them must be inhibiting their frequency. Admittedly, it didn't sit right with him either, the three agents who had disappeared through that hole. 

Leo tried to focus on his task at hand. He tried not to think about what was going on in the basement so far below. He tried. At least he didn't know how far away she had gone. He wouldn't even be able to hear her scream.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asia slipped around the corner, gun and flashlight raised. Nothing. She sighed, shaking her head. She was unusually on edge down here. "This end is clear," the agent called out back down the hall towards Mack and Daisy, who were checking their own quadrants of the industrial park where they had trailed the killer. It had been easy to trail it, just follow the path of chaos and destruction. Comms were cutting in and out, from the concrete and the distance, Asia suspected. At least they had been able to send their location to him, even if they couldn't speak. 

"Why did I follow you two idiots out here?" Mack said, half jokingly, half begrudgingly. "I could be back at base, working on something productive, instead of running around in the dark hunting down a serial killer." He sighed, shaking his head. "But here I am."

"Because you love us," Daisy chimed in. "And because we need to find out how this thing is tracing other Inhumans." She raked her flashlight over a ribbed door, behind which was someone's storage space. No sign of damage, no movement. She sighed, looking at Asia as their third member joined them. 

"Kinda seems like it's going off of instinct." Mack shrugged, whirling around a corner. Nothing but an empty hallway. "You are both too young for Jaws, aren't you?" Asia rolled her eyes at Daisy at that particular comment. "Remind me to put it on when we get back. All it knows how to do is eat, sleep, and kill." 

Suddenly, somewhere in front of them, a door slammed. Asia stiffened, redefining the aim of her pistol. "What's down there?" She asked, squinting into the murky darkness of the hallway in front of them. She knew what they had all heard, but discerning anything in this darkness was practically impossible. 

"Can't see a damn thing," Mack muttered. "But I guess we gotta keep moving." None of the agents moved to step forward. 

"Together then?" Asia suggested, adjusting the grip on her gun. The three of them, in unison, stepped forward, moving further down the hall, cutting into the shadow with the small light of their flashlights.

They continued down the pathway together, until they slowly rounded another corner, stopping in front of a set of double doors, metal and closed. "End of the line," Asia muttered quietly, nodding to her teammates. "Let's stay safe."

"Its gotta be long gone by now," Mack replied with a shake of his head. "It's been like two minutes since we heard those doors close. He'd be an idiot to stick around." There was a thud sound from behind the door and the froze, stopping their approach. "That can't be..." Mack muttered, looking at the two of them then back towards the door.

"It kinda of sounds like something is trying to get out," Daisy muttered, looking around them. "Maybe we should hold off, for backup," she suggested, unsure if she wanted to find out what was beyond those doors. 

"We can't stop now," Asia said, putting on a brave face. "This could be our chance to end it." She took a step forward, glancing at her two teammates as if to ask _You coming?_. Both nodded, stepping forward to meet her. Asia nodded back at them, and together, they walked quietly towards the doors. 

They stopped in front of them, Asia keeping her gun raised as Daisy and Mack stood in front of each door handle.

"When I count to three," Mack looked at Daisy, meeting her gaze. He slowly counted out the numbers, Asia keeping her gaze focused on the space between the doors, ready for them to open and reveal their enemy, the one they had been hunting all along. Lash. She gritted her teeth. She was ready to put an end to all of this. 

On three, they whipped open the doors.


	15. Chapter 15

It was the fucking ATCU. That was who Coulson had sent as their backup. Asia was still trying to wrap her head around it, the idea that they were now "partners." Nothing out of this seemed like a partnership. It all seemed like an odd plot to try and get on their good side, before the ATCU inevitably destroyed them or betrayed them. She didn't like it one bit. She wanted to keep their distance, be the ones to outsmart the other agency. Or destroy from within, though she couldn't exactly be incognito with the ATCU. They all knew her face from a mile away. It was a same she couldn't call in Natasha; she was pretty recognizable these days, too.

She tried to preoccupy herself by sitting in the Lab with Bobbi, who was still stuck and confined in there, until she was completely done with rehab. That didn't help her too much, either. 

"I need to tell you something," Bobbi had said, when Asia had lounged herself into the chair next to Bobbi's desk, reclining like she had been there every day, without her disappearing interludes, where Bobbi was testing what DNA samples they had been able to get from the crime scene. "But you're not going to like it."

"What's new there?" Asia asked with a sigh, leaning back to stare up at the ceiling. There were a whole multitude of things that Bobbi's news _could_ be, though there was no way that the brunette would have planned on what the agent told her next. 

"Fitz, he, uh..." She trailed off, shaking her head for a moment before setting the tools in front of her down on the desk and turning to face Asia, who was now sitting up straight, staring at her with unblinking eyes. "That reservation you had for dinner...he took Simmons." 

Asia could hear the blood rushing through her ears, and a sound of ringing. A loud buzz, that blocked out everything around her. She blinked once, twice, shaking her head, trying to clear away the feeling of having the rug pulled out from beneath her. She could see Bobbi's mouth moving, but couldn't quite make out what she was saying over the hum. 

"I don't think it was a romantic thing," Bobbi continued, unaware the young woman couldn't even understand her words, didn't realize she was trying to keep her sudden vertigo at bay so she didn't puke all over the floor. "I think he just wanted to get her away from everything, get her to talk. Hell, I wish I could have done it myself..." she only muttered the last part, zoning out for a moment as she imagined holding Jemma's hand as they walked down the street. But reality was calling and the computer in front of them beeped, announcing that the DNA test was done.

Asia snapped out of her focus too, standing up suddenly, the rolling chair shoving out from beneath her. "I've got to go," she muttered, tagging on something about needing to prep for a mission, as she practically sprinted towards the door. But the woman paused in the doorway, leaning back to look at Bobbi. "Hey," she called out, the other spy looking back up at her, wide eyes. "Can you hurry up and ask her out already? It'll make life easier for all of us." 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asia had lied about being needed for a mission, she just didn't want to be in there anymore, couldn't stand it, really. Instead, she found herself climbing into the Bus and lowering herself into her little ice tank, sinking beneath the water, pulling oxygen to herself so she could still breath. Separating the water from the air, staying hidden beneath the ice. She felt safer in there, like she was untouchable. And she also felt safe to cry. She wouldn't do that in front of the others, no, that was a sign of the weak. She turned on her location tracker so Daisy could find her if need be, closed her eyes, and was completely consumed by the cold water. 

So, of course, she didn't know that May had returned. She didn't know about the danger that Hunter was walking into. She didn't know about any of that, while she hid beneath the surface of ice, trying to feel nothing for a little while. She didn't know, till she was suddenly awoken by a sharp banging on the side of her tank. She burst through the surface, whirling to face whoever it was. 

To her surprise, Coulson and May stood in front of her. "May, you're back," she said, unable to help the smile tugging at her lips, even after the hell of 48 hours she had had. She shrugged on her jacket, climbing out of the tub, water droplets evaporating from her clothes and she tugged the H2O into herself. One minute she was dripping wet, the next she was dry.

“For now,” May nodded calmly, hands clasped in front of her. “I’m here because I need backup. Because Hunter needs backup. It will be a worst case scenario, break glass in case of emergency.” She looked at Asia, eyes narrowed. “We will have you in a Quinnjet, nearby, if needed. Are you up for it?” 

“I’m always up for it,” Asia replied with a quick nod. “When are we shipping out?” She glanced around them, taking note of what things she had with her. She would prefer time to pack, if she had it.

"You have time to pack," May said with a nod. "I'll head out before you, bring a small team in a Quinnjet behind me, just in case. Hunter is on a warpath, but I don't want him thinking we don't believe in him. That could ultimately be even more dangerous, for everyone involved." Asia nodded at the woman with understanding. "We've got one shot here," May continued. "We have to take it." May knew that Asia understood this, almost more than anyone else. 

The two said their goodbyes, parting ways for May to finish debriefing with Coulson. Asia made her way back towards her room to prep her go bag. She wanted to be ready, especially because Hunter was in danger. It had been over a week since they had last seen him, and Asia didn't want they way they had parted to be her last memory of him. 

While she was padding her way down the hall, still barefoot, feet making light tapping sounds against the cool concrete, she rounded the corner and nearly ran smack dab into Leo, who was tapping away at a small tablet. He looked up at her startled, surprised to see her down here, near their rooms. 

"Um, hey," he said, awkwardly, trying to lean against in some semblance of appearing casual. It would have appeared more so if he hadn't almost slipped when trying to lean against the brick. But that was the sort of thing that made her grin, a tiny hint of a smile that he hadn't seen in...what he was coming to realize was quite some time.

"Hi, yourself," she replied, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "What are you up to?" She hated that she felt awkward speaking to him. She hated that they had slipped away from their near perfect chat and banter they used to be able to uphold. She tried not to let the pain of it show on her face, tried not to show him she knew all about the dinner date, _their_ dinner date, that he had taken Jemma on. But her smile betrayed her, and she couldn't do anything but smirk slightly. 

"Just, uh, wrapping up some inventory and cataloging Simons' diagnostic tests," Leo said, scratching at the back of his head. "What about you? You seem in a hurry."

"I have a mission, with May," Asia explained with a small shrug. "I have to get ready and leave soon. Not 100% sure when I'll be back." She frowned, hoping he understood she would miss him while she was gone, hoping he understood she missed him every day.

"May is back?" Leo asked, standing up straighter. "That's really good news. I was worried she was gone, well, forever," he shrugged, before leaning forward suddenly and grabbing one of her hands in his. "Be safe out there, yea?" he whispered, before leaning in and pressing a kiss to her forehead. Asia closed her eyes, relishing in the same sparks that ignited at their contact, the ones that had always been there.

She could have stayed frozen in that moment for eternity, and Leo could have too, if it weren't for the persistent beeping from his tablet, calling him back from the Lab. He gave her hand one last squeeze, before separating from her and disappearing off down the hall again. 

Asia stayed standing their, silently, for a minute more, afraid that if she moved, she might lose that moment in time, forever.


	16. Chapter 16

Asia sat in the Quinnjet, replying to a text from Daisy, who had run into Lash once again. She sighed, feeling bad that she hadn't been there to help. She was busy, flying overhead through the sky, waiting for the potential of needing to arrive as backup, to make sure May and Hunter got out alright. She had been up there for over a day, waiting for the call. It was frustrating beyond belief, sitting up there amongst the clouds, waiting for some sign, some signal, that she could do something. That she could be of use. But here she sat, with nothing happening to her, besides replying to Daisy's text. 

She leaned back against the seat with a sigh, glancing over at the pilots. They didn't even let her fly while she waited. It was easy to get bored, but at least she had remember to bring a couple books. She had been on a thriller kick recently, the suspense of the story taking away the limbo of her daily life. But even the books couldn't keep her from hearing ghost text messages arrive, every time she checked the phone - blank screen.

She picked at the hangnails she had, she stretched her powers, moving the clouds outside around them, drawing water in and out of herself, forming rain clouds, water the lands below them. She knew that Hunter was in a bad spot, she knew it. There was no doubt there, based off of everything May had briefed her on. 

Hunter was deep undercover, infiltrating Ward's new version of Hydra, the Hydra that the man she once called her best friend was building from the ground up. His goal, obviously, was the kill Grant Ward, but Asia did not imagine it would go this way. She thought it would be much cleaner, much more efficient. She thought it would be something like Hunter sitting blocks away, sniper in hand, much like she had spent her last year. She didn't think he would be so up close, so in harms way. But he as out for blood, and apparently this was the only way to get it.

It was weird, thinking someone she had once considered one of her closest confidants, someone she considered close enough to be family, was going to be dead soon. That she knew it, that she had assisted in the premeditation of the act. If she thought back on it, she could remember incredible memories with Ward. Their competitive streak, their first time jumping out of a plane together...she had to be careful not to let herself get dragged back by these memories or she would get too remorseful. It was easier not to think about it. Asia understood he had to die, she understood why, but nonetheless, that never made it any easier.

Suddenly, Asia's comms crackled to life. "Monroe, this is May. Hunter's moving in, stand by for the word." Asia sat up straight, looking over to her crew up front, who had also heard the message. "Coulson, are you on?" May asked, the line going silent as everyone waited for a response. 

"Here, and I read you loud and clear," Coulson's voice cut through seconds later. There was something about hearing him that always made Asia feel calmer. Knowing their fearless leader was there, having their back, even if he was back at headquarters, that meant something. Some leaders stood back, but Coulson was always right there. 

Asia sat in her chair, eyes closed, waiting for a sign, a sound, anything at all, straining her ears against the white noise so deeply that her ears began to ring.

"Monroe," Coulson's voice cut through comms suddenly, sharply, surprising her with the urgency even though she had been waiting for a sound. "We're rerouting you to a new position. Coordinates are being sent to your plane. No time for waiting."

"Sir, what's wrong?" Asia replied, holding her hand to her ear, pressing the device in as if she could make his voice reverberate louder than it already was. There was something very wrong, she could sense it in his voice. But if she wasn't being called in as backup for Hunter and May, what could it even be? 

"It's Dr. Garner, that's Ward's next target," Coulson replied, remaining as calm as he possibly could in a situation such as this. "They have a live feed playing on him, there's Hydra members around him right now. We need you to get in there and take them out. We need you to get him out safe." Asia could picture the man in her mind, the man who had helped her through her transformation, who was a support system and a healer for their team. 

"Understood," She replied evenly, standing up and walking towards the cockpit. "How far out are we from the coordinates?" Asia asked, leaning down to look at the instruments in front of them. _Too far,_ she thought to herself, worriedly. When the captain advised her it was going to be another four minutes before she could jump, Asia nodded, heading back to her seat again and suiting up. She adjusted her wristlets, strapped on a chute, and stood near the ramp, ready for the signal. She could feel the clouds and moisture all around them, and she pulled as much of it towards her as she could. And when the light turned green and the ramp opened, she jumped. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm headed in," Asia radioed to Coulson as she looked out towards the small corner store, a tiny little convenience store that would look nice and quaint if it weren't for the big men she could see through the windows, men of Hydra, pouring something on the floor and knocking over shelves. She couldn't see Dr. Garner anywhere through the glass, but she couldn't get as good of a glimpse as she would have hoped for.

Asia began to walk across the street, stretching her arms out as ripples of ice spread across the ground, crawling over the building, chilling the air around her. Suddenly, a young kid, probably around her age maybe a couple years younger at most, burst through the front doors, sprinting away. "Hey!" Asia called out, trying to grab his sleeve, "Hey!" But he kept running. 

Asia turned back to face the store when suddenly heat rippled out towards her, and she heard the sound of glass bursting before she saw it happen. On instinct, the woman jerked into a ball, water surrounding her, shielding her from the heat and flames and the shards of glass that shot out from the store as the building burst into flame. 

When Asia stood up front the ground, brushing rubble from her arms and pants, the building was still burning, flames crackling. Without a second thought, she ran towards the building. Dr. Garner could be in there, trying to survive the flames. She was the one who could fix this, she was the one who could save him.

Ducking through the door frame, she thrust her hands out, water spraying forth from her and smashing into the flames, pushing them back, dousing them. The heat was almost unbearable, but she kept going, until the ceiling was dripping and all which was left were small embers and ash. "Dr. Garner?" She called out, stepping forward again, looking for any sign of life, or...any sign of a body. 

She was so focused, so intent on the task at hand, that she didn't sense the presence behind her. She didn't see the woman, younger than she, hands glowing red, and didn't see her swing a gas can against the agent's head, knocking Asia out cold, her body dropping like a rock to the floor.

And she didn't hear the woman send out a comms message either. _"Ward, I've got her."_


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, these next couple chapters may be rough. There will be descriptors of violence and torture. Please proceed with caution and take care of yourselves if you could potentially be triggered by the topics. ❤

Asia woke with a groan, her body feeling stiff, feeling hot. She could feel bruises forming beneath her skin, could pinpoint there locations before she even opened her eyes. And she didn't open her eyes. Because she knew something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. She didn't feel anything familiar around her. The scents were different. The sounds weren't the same. Something was beeping nearby, and she didn't know what. She couldn't feel the familiar passes of water that ran through the base. And she was sitting up, arms bound down at the wrists to whatever chair she was strapped to. Yes, something was very wrong indeed. 

"Good morning, Monroe," an all-too-familiar voice growled in front of her. "No use pretending you're not awake, the heart monitor gave you away already." Grant Ward. She was somewhere, strapped to a chair, with Grant Ward. And now that he had mentioned it, she knew what the beeping noise was. Montiors, she was strapped up tight and he was reading everything on her. Begrudgingly, she opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings.

The room was large, with a vaulted ceiling, but dark. She could feel water anywhere around her. Not anywhere at all. That knowledge left her with a sick, hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had no idea how long she had been tied up, no idea how much water she had in her to use. She was thirsty, her mouth as dry at cotton balls, but she had a feeling Ward wasn't going to be giving her liquids any time soon. The ceiling, as she stretched her neck up, was vaulted to a point above her, with what appeared to be a lightning rod of sorts. Directly beneath the center was the chair which Asia was strapped to.

Looking down, Asia took in her physical situation. There was a needle stuck into her left arm, though Asia wasn't entirely sure if it was putting something into her or drawing something out. There were cords dipping under her shirt, which she asse 

Lower down from her platform, looking up at her, was Ward, a grim look on his face. "Took you long enough. You've been out for a day and a half." He tisked his tongue, as if he were disappointed in her behavior, disappointed in her lack of waking up. Speaking of, the back of her head ached from wherever she had been hit. She didn't remember it happening, but obviously, it did. She wouldn't be in this position, now would she?

"Maybe your lackey shouldn't have hit me so hard," Asia replied, licking her lips, trying to make herself feel any sort of semblance of moisture. It was like her knew, like he had designed this place to be her personal prison. Calculated, she thought to herself, but that didn't make things impossible. She felt confident she could get out on her own, given enough time.

That was, until thousands of volts of hot flaming electricity licked through her body, coursing up from the metal coils wrapped around her thin wrists and ankles. She let out an animalistc scream, unprepared for the the sheer level of pain that tore through her entire body. She heard Ward laughing at her pain, but couldn't move her head to look at him, still unable to take control of the pain eating her alive. It was like having liquid lava pulsing through her veins. She screamed and cried for him to stop, unsure if she was making words, or if the sounds were all in her own mind. She could smell her own flesh, burning. A scent she wished she could forget.

"Nuh, uh, uh," Ward said holding a little switch, a tiny silver remote up in his hand, flicking it and stopping her pain. She let out a gasp for air, only just realizing she hadn't been able to truly breathe until the electricity stopped destroying her nerves. "No backtalk, Monroe. It's not very nice. Also, _lackey_ isn't a very good name for your sister, is it?" He tapped his chin, which was grazed with just the finest hint of black stubble. 

Asia's ears perked up at this, her head jerking to face him, eyes ripping away from the switch in his hand to look him in the eyes. Was he lying? She couldn't read him the way she used to. Old Ward, _her_ Ward, she could read like a book. But he had changed, he had adapted, into something different, an animal only recently discovered in the wild, a beast she couldn't read. He could be making this entire thing up to see her reaction. So she did what she did best, let her RBF take over for her. She stared at him, no questions, no emotional response. He didn't want back talk? Fine, he wouldn't get any talk at all.

Bored, Ward clicked the remote again, just for two seconds, watching Asia Monroe's body tense up, going ridged as he electrocuted her. He watched one single tear squeeze itself out of her right eye, and he grinned, turning the electricity off. "Sorry about that, finger slipped." He shook his head, walking around her. Asia didn't like that she couldn't see him as he walked behind her. He could be doing anything, but she would never know. 

"I'm sure you're wondering where you are, how you got here..." Ward trailed off, rounding her left side. Her eyes stayed glued straight ahead, but she could feel his movements. Feel the water coming from his body. The only water in this space was coming from bodies, and that wasn't really something she could use. "When you're asleep that long, it's pretty easy to relocate. You're nowhere near home, wherever it is that Shield makes their base now. Nowhere near where we picked you up, that's for sure. Even if you got out, you would die before you got close to civilization." 

Ward leaned against the brick wall in front of her, watching her for a while, lightly flipping the remote that could activate her torture device at any moment, as if it were a baseball. Toss, up, down, catch. Easy as that. He made it look so casual, holding her sanity like that. If she could, she would spit in his face. If she could, she would break free from her restraints and beat him to hell, no powers needed. Though she wouldn't mind being able to freeze him right now, smash that smirk off his lips, turn his body so cold and dry it fell to pieces at one touch.

"So we're going to have some fun now, you and I," Ward explained, still smirking at her, nodding the remote towards her. "You're going to sit, quietly, until I ask you a question. When I ask the question, you give me an answer. Simple, right?" He shook his head, standing up and walking towards her, holding that remote out. With the cold metal, he tapped her on the nose, once. "Don't follow my rules, zap." He flicked the electric chair one for one second, then back off. "Don't answer my questions, zap." On, back off again. Asia could hardly tell the difference between the normal air and the burnt, charred air. "Make any sounds other than answering my questions...What happens to you, Monroe?" 

"Zap," she replied dryly, staring at the remote, not at him. Why, why, why, why? Asia knew Ward had become all sorts of fucked up, but he had protected her, when....when _he_ was trying to assault her, trying to use her body, trying to torture her....Asia shoved those thoughts deep back down into the recesses of her mind. Ward had protected her, that was all that was important. So why now? Why hurt her like this now? Had he not been the one by her side in the ER after her first bullet was removed? Had they not stitched each other up too many times to count? How could he do this?

Breaking the rules already, she spoke. "Can you tell me why you're doing this?" She turned, angling her head up to look at him directly, meeting his gaze for the first time since he had began his speech. And then she waited. Waited for the flick of the pain, the burn of her innards. But it didn't come. 

"I'll give you that one," Ward said evenly, staring into her grey eyes for one moment before he had to tear his gaze away. Dammit all, she was trying to work him and he knew it. He knew her well enough by now, after all these years, and knew she was going to try and get off easy. "That was your one slip up. And I can, actually, tell you why I'm doing this. I suppose you deserve to know." He dug into his pocket, pulling out a phone, unlocking it with his finger print and showing her a picture. A picture of a woman, staring off over a balcony, completely unaware that she was being photographed. Long, dark brown, almost black hair, tan skin, lips slightly parted. 

"Her," he said. "I'm doing it for her. Your team, Shield, is the reason she's dead. I need to get to Coulson. Hydra talks a lot about chopping off heads this, growing back that, but Shield is the head that won't come back if I cut it off. I need to end Coulson, and you're going to help me. Willingly or not."

Asia stopped looking at him, staring back at the wall, finding a small chink in the brick she could focus on, just a small corner of one stone that was chipped out. She would focus on that, she would remember her training, and she wouldn't say a word. Her lips would be a safe, locked up type. She wouldn't let Ward in, wouldn't let him break her.

And so the questions began. And so the smell of burnt flesh filled the room.


	18. Chapter 18

"Tell me your name," he said, "First middle last, for the recording." _He_ was Ward, speaking to her, through the bars in her cell. The cage he had tossed her limp, unconscious body into when he was done frying her to bits. He must have fed and watered her at some point, but she didn't remember it. She just knew it had been over three days and she wasn't dead. So somehow he had made sure she was still able to function. Why? What else could he possibly want from her? He had beat her, in this cell, too. Her left arm was broken she was fairly certain, and at least one of her back teeth was knocked loose, blood pooling in her mouth, coating her tongue in its coppery taste.

She had stood strong when it came to the questioning before. It was hard, sure, painful, incredibly so. But she couldn't just give up on her friends, her family. If she spoke up, all of them would die, too. She couldn't live with herself, knowing that. Not that she was going to live much longer anyways. 

She knew that because he had told her, out there, back in that room, when he had gotten frustrated with her lack of response, with her lack of acceptance of her fate. He told her all about how he had her sister, tucked back in one of these rooms, how he had designed this place just for Mer, to enhance her fire abilities. She had taken that information well, knowing that he hadn't designed this place against her. That he didn't know about her special skill set, either. She still held out a small hope, that she would get out of here, even if that light was fading too. 

Asia look up through the wire bars of the cage she was in, looking up at her captor, who was standing there, old fashioned hand camera in his palm, pointed at her. "Asia Penelope Monroe," she replied, spitting out some of her congealed blood and spit combination to the floor. "Agent of Shield."

"Still won't let that go, will you?" Ward chided, shaking his head at her almost in pity. "You've learned to answer though, that's good. Things will go much better for you that way." She wasn't really sure what _things_ he could possibly mean at this point. He would kill her, maybe in two days, maybe in a week, but he had promised her that. She remembered it, because she never thought she would hear Grant Ward utter those words. 

"Why?" she had asked him, voice hoarse, throat sore, when he had stopped the electricity running through her body. "Why would you do this to me, Ward? To _me_?" It was then she had finally cried, let herself really cry, even though she had wanted to keep all the water she possibly could. She couldn't stop herself anymore, the dams released and she sobbed. 

She sobbed for her lost friend, for his betrayal. She sobbed over the memories of him, of the two of them together. Of how she still remembered her first day on the Bus, Ward letting out a whoop of joy, scooping her up, and spinning her in a circle. And it hadn't been fake, not then. Even with his betrayal, that had never been fake. Grant Ward had been her _friend_ and now he was her demise. 

"You were kind to me, good towards me, even after anything. Last year, even when Coulson had me prepped to assassinate you if need be, you never said one bad thing. You called me to tell me my sister was alive. Ward, please, _why me_?" She didn't think she could live without knowing the answer.

He had faltered for a moment then, but it was only for a moment. He knew she would try and get to him like this, but he didn't expect it to _work_. He shook his head at her sadly, because he didn't have a good answer. The only true answer was happenstance. She was in the wrong place, at the incredibly wrong time. He would have rather gone for anyone else, anyone who didn't give him flashbacks of sneaking drinks at Ops, breaking into the other schools. Anyone else, who he didn't consistently could on to have his back. But it had been her, so it would have to stay her. 

But now, back in this cell, Asia didn't want to think about that moment of weakness. She didn't want him to make her cry again. Not another time. But she wasn't prepared for what happened next. There was no way she ever would have been able to prepare herself for that.

Out of the shadows stepped a woman, smaller than she, just a little younger. She recognized her, but not perfectly. But she knew, in her heart, deep down she knew. Perhaps it was basic instinct, that connection bread from being of the same blood, from the same two people's love for one another. It didn't feel impossible, though seeing her sister alive an in front of her certainly did. This was a moment she never truly imagined she would live to see. It had only been in her dreams, then. 

Asia heard a strangled cry, a sound like a baby animal, and she realized it was her own, the cry catching in her throat as the tears flowed freely, without her own will or choice. "Mer," she whispered, grabbing onto the bars, pulling herself upright. "It's really you," she turned to Ward, "It's really her."

"Actually," he replied, "This is _Inferno_. Goes by the name Hydra coined. It's all she really knows now." He looked back at the brunette, who was staring blankly at the woman in the cage in front of them. There was no sign of recognition. No glint in her eyes. Good. Ward had actually been slightly worried about that. 

"Consider this my last gift to you," He said, nodding at Asia's sister, who disappeared back into the dark shadows, backing away from them, going back to her patrol job. "You got to see your sister alive. Now, you're going to do one last thing for me. And then all this pain can end."

Ward explained what he wanted, and Asia agreed. They started recording.


	19. Chapter 19

Leo Fitz had been busy trying to help Jemma all week. Turns out, apparently, she fell for some bloke while she was on a different planet, he saved her, and now she wanted to get back to him. So, of course, he had to help his best friend. What sort of support system would he be if he didn't? Typing on his tablet, he almost sped by one of their gym rooms, when he saw Bobbi inside, hard at work on her rehabilitation. She seemed to be putting in greater effort than usual for some reason, her face clenched with exertion. Leo paused, knocking lightly on the door frame before entering the large, open room lined with various pieces of workout equipment. 

"Hey," he greeted, awkwardly tucking his tablet under his arm. "How is the rehab going? It looks like you're nearly back up to shape." He hoped his comment sounded nice, cheered her up a little. For whatever reason, Bobbi had not been herself lately. Perhaps it was because Hunter was back? He wasn't all that sure on their relationship these days. 

Bobbi let the slide she was on for her squats slowly lower back down, until it caught into its resting place and she was able to fully sit up, grabbing her water bottle and taking a quick drink. She had been hitting hard that day, but she had good reason to. They all did. "Thanks, Fitz," she replied, after she was able to catch her breath. "I'm think I'm nearly ready for my physical. I need to get out there. There's work to be done." 

Leo nodded, that all made sense. She had been cooped up in here, stuck to assisting him with Lab work, which really couldn't be all that exciting for someone used to high paced missions and constant action. He didn't blame her in the slightest, even if the Lab was his happy place. 

"I could, erm, help you with that," he suggested. "Get it all set up, help chart everything out for you. Once I'm done helping Simmons, that is," he shrugged. "She's hellbent on getting back to that blasted planet, who knows why. You know Simmons, always dead set on one thing or another," he couldn't help but laugh. 

Bobbi looked up at him quizzically. He really must have snapped from this, hadn't he? Couldn't focus on anything but work with the news they had gotten that morning? She sighed, shaking her head, before standing up and placing her hand comfortingly on his shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze. "Hey, Fitz, are you doing okay? With...everything?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused. "I'm doing just fine, thanks." He had no idea what she could even be getting at.

The furrow in Bobbi's brow grew deeper. "You mean you don't know?" She asked quietly, the realization hitting her like a wall of bricks. He didn't even know. Oh God, he had no idea what they had found that morning. Or, rather, what had been sent to them. 

"Oh God, Fitz, I'm so sorry..." she said, shaking her head. "I can't...how do you not know?" She asked, almost in disbelief. His own girlfriend was missing for days and he didn't even realize. What had happened to the agent she once knew? The old Leo Fitz would have noticed Asia Monroe's absence in a heartbeat. 

"I'm sorry, don't know what exactly?" He asked, shaking his head, beginning to worry. 

Bobbi sighed, letting her hand fall from his shoulder. She picked up her bag and placed it over her shoulder. "You should probably come with me."

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Leopold Fitz had rarely felt moments of complete and utter fear in his life. Sure, his childhood had been less than pleasant, certainly not the idealist youth one would want for their child, but he had never known terror, sheer and utter horror. And what he felt as he stared up at the screens in the Intel room in their basement was just that. Horror. Bloodcurdling horror. 

On the twenty or so screens in front of him were several images of Asia's face, all shifting and changing rapidly. Sometimes she was strapped into a chair in a dimly lit room, her body arcing in pain, trying to tear herself from her restraints with no luck. Other times, she was lying down, defeated, staring up at the camera with bloodshot eyes. Her skin was so pale. Her arm appeared broken. She was bruised and bleeding and defeated. He had never in his life seen her look quite so defeated. It was like all will she had to live had been destroyed. In some, she looked like she was talking up to the camera, but he couldn't hear her words. Those must having been going only to the agents with headphones on, tapping rapidly at their desks. 

"What, what, what, what am I watching?" He stuttered, his speech impediment, the damage from that terrible moment under sea, always finding its way back to him in moments of trauma. And this, above all else, was a moment of severe, deep trauma. He felt like sinking to the floor, he felt like sinking _through_ the floor. He was acutely aware that his body was shaking of its own volition. 

Bobbi sighed, turning away from the screens to look at him. "Someone hacked into our servers this morning and delivered these to us, packaged up specially for our team. Fitz...Asia has been missing for a week. She went on a mission to save Dr. Andrew Garner, and succeeded, but was captured in the processes. We thought, maybe, she was just laying low, that she was working her way back to Base. But when we got these this morning, we were able to discern what had really happened."

"Who, who did it?" He asked, bracing himself against one of the tech desks, trying to tear his eyes from the screens. How didn't he know? How did he not notice?? Why had no one told him?? He let out a scream, shoving the computer to the floor, the screen crashing and metal pieces flying around their feet. Several agents stopped what they were doing to look at him with confusion or concern.

"Fitz, Fitz," Bobbi said, grabbing him by his shoulders and turning him towards her, forcing him to look at her. "We think it was Ward. We have the best of the best tracing these files back to sender." She nodded towards the front where Daisy sat, at her trusty laptop, back ridged and straight as she typed rapid fire onto the keys, her strokes the loudest in the room. "We will find her." 

"Send them to me," he muttered to himself, then speaking his command a second time to one of the agents sitting closest to them. "The videos, send them to me. Now." The agent nodded, almost frightened by the harshness of his words, before Leo Fitz turned and ran out of the room, tapping at his tablet.

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Ward called them her "Death Notes." A final video series sent out to her dearest and only family. Her team. Each segment had its own title dedicated to those she valued most. Mack, Bobbi, Hunter, Jemma, Daisy, Coulson, Leo. They were pieced together pretty jankily, and Leo wasn't sure if they were all from one moment or prolonged over the last few days.

He sat down in her bed, pulling Asia's blankets around him, surrounding himself with things that reminded him of her. He needed to, to make himself strong enough for what he was about to watch. He had turned on her record player, putting on a Prince album. _"He sounds like purple, obviously," she had told him, once. "But silver, too, and flecks of gold. I see them when I hear him. It's beautiful."_ He turned on her bedside lamp, the one with the warm, orange glow. He lit her sage incense. And then he pressed play.

"Mack," her voice came through his tiny tablet, as he watched this pale, frail version of the woman shaking her head and smiling. "He and I didn't always see eye to eye. I think he hated me, at first. But not now. Now, we're partners. There is no one I would trust more to have my back. No one I would trust more to see me out safely. I wish he were here, right now. You wouldn't stand a chance." It felt deeply personal hearing her say these things about other people, but Leo pushed on. He needed to hear it, needed to see it. He needed to let himself feel the shame of not knowing she was gone.

"Bobbi, thank you. Thank you for kicking my ass, often, always," she smirked, coughing as she tried to laugh. "You and I share secrets, sometimes without even knowing we've done it. And I value that, I value your trust and your understanding. If I could tell you one thing right now, it would be that it's not worth waiting anymore. You really don't know what could happen, so you need to do what is best for you. Fuck everyone else." 

The video cut to another day maybe, another time. "Lance Hunter is one of the best friends I have ever had." There was the sound of someone muttering something behind the camera, but Leo couldn't make out the words. Whatever had been said caused Asia to smile sadly. "Good. Good, I wish he had hit you harder. He's going to regret not killing you the first time, probably more, when he sees this." she shook her head on screen, resting it tiredly against the thin metal bars of whatever cage she was in. "Hunter, please don't. I couldn't stand knowing you lived your life with regret. You're the most vibrant person I've ever seen. So full of light. Don't let that, die, please. Not because of me. I'll see you again soon, and I'll be ready to play more Zombies, I promise." She smiled, for real, and the video clip ended, sliding directly into another.

"What can I say about Jemma Simmons? She's brilliant, but you and I and she all know that," Asia tried to prop herself up but her withering body didn't seem to want to follow her own commands. She slumped against the cement wall instead. "She's brilliant, and kind, and funny, and has faced more pain than anyone like her should ever have to face. She and Trip were in love. They were endgame, the kind of love we all want at the end of the day, and then he died. And that isn't fair, not to anyone, but especially not to her. Jemma deserves that kind of love. She deserves to be _happy_ , to not have to worry anymore. She's always worrying, about all of us. Always saving us, patching us up, only to watch us nearly die all over again. But she does it, every day, without complaint, because that's what you do for those that you love." Asia turned her head slowly, as if it were painful, to look up at the camera filming her. "Jemma, take care of him for me, please." The screen cut out, and it was on to the next painful goodbye.

"Daisy Johnson is the best human being I have ever met in my entire life," were the next words Leo heard, watching the grainy, sad image of Asia stare off into the distance as if she were picturing the very moment they all met. "She is my sister, my family to replace those who I lost. I would take a bullet for her, every day for the rest of my life, without hesitation. We had this bond, you know?" She doesn't wait for a reply, she just keeps talking. She didn't need Ward's response, anyways. "Like we had known each other forever. If past lives exist, I think we knew each other in that one, too. How else do you explain meeting someone one day, with not past interactions, and just knowing each other on sight? Daisy knew me, she understood me. Even when we disagree, she still understands me all the same. She was what I needed, when I joined this team. Because of her, I got to have a family. Daisy, I love you. Find the bastard for me." She smiled, tears running down her cheeks, then blinked out.

"Agent Phillip Coulson is a legend," Asia choked on a laugh again, a bit of blood dribbling down her chin. "He died and came back, but that's not what makes him a hero. He is a hero, because he recognizes his humanity, and the humanity of others, and he fights for it. I lost my dad when I was really little, but you already know that," she shakes her head, as if she was reminding herself that was silly to even mention. "But Coulson is the closest thing to having a parent that I've experienced in a long time. And it felt good, knowing my dad was a hero. Phil Coulson trained me, he taught me. He pushed me when it was needed, and he let me heal when it was needed. He never asked for more than I could give, because he knew me and what my limits were. He helped me grow. He helped all of us grow, grow into this family. It was more than a job, working with him, working for him. I have never loved people more in my life, and I owe that to him." 

Leo sat up straighter in the bed, trying to prepare himself for what was coming next. How does someone even get ready for that?

"Leo Fitz." Asia sighed, shaking her head. In the video, her breaths were coming short and she was resting her head against the bars, the metal digging into her skin, but she didn't have the energy to do anything about it. "Wow, this is going to be what really kills me, isn't it? Saying goodbye?" She laughed to herself, a wheezy broken sound like glass. "Leo Fitz was the long lost, star crossed, love of my life. I just hope that I was his, too. I know that things haven't been the easiest between us lately. But that doesn't change the fact that I love him as much as I love myself. Without him, there is no me. The person I've become today has direct coloration to Leo Fitz coming into my life. I could have spent forever, just talking to him, you know? It's like it's the easiest thing in the world. Even our silence is comfortable. I remember the day I met him, he treated me like I had meaning, moreso than just because of my...skill set. But because I was a human, and I was hurting. 

So Leo Fitz saved me. And he's been saving me every single day, he just doesn't know it. How do you tell a person that they make all the bad things out there in the world seem completely bearable without sounding like the worlds biggest cheeseball? You don't, so I didn't say it. I've never been very good with words anyways. I didn't need to be, not when he could tell what I was thinking, how I was feeling, just by looking at me. Did you know there's this...this small cottage, in Perthsire. It's out by a river, and the sunrise is the most beautiful thing...I could see myself, someday, out there......Anyways. He is my best friend, and I love him more than anything else in this universe. I would die for him," she shook her head sadly, rust flaking against her face. "And now, I guess I will." She used whatever energy she had left to look up at the camera. "Leo, I love you. I'm so sorry."

The tablet fell from his hands and he dropped his head to his knees, the unstoppable tears rushing out of him as he cried out in agony.


	20. Chapter 20

The air was thick, but Asia was pretty sure that just had to do with the blood in her mouth. How many days had it been? Or had it only been hours? She was starting to forget, to lose track of time. She knew that was a bad sign. That meant death would follow soon, if she didn’t get up, if she didn’t get out. 

She could barely, just barely, feel water above her. It was far away, so far away. She couldn’t reach it, not even with her mind, so she couldn’t use it. As she was growing weaker and weaker, she could feel other sources of water. The water running through the veins of Ward and his “employees,” though she never felt her sister again. Her body craved it, the feeling of cool, extra water pumping through her system. How was she supposed to create water when she was barely alive?

She leaned against the thin bars of the cell she was stuck in, barely able to make out the outline of the guard around the corner from her. Were the lights dim or was her world fading? She wasn’t entirely sure anymore. 

It wasn’t even of her own control when she reached her shaking hand out through the bars, directed towards the guard. It was an animalistic instinct to when her hand twitched. Just a small flick of the wrist. She didn’t even realize she was doing it until the water started flowing into her. She looked up, watching the guard’s body crumple, slumping down the wall to the floor. She watched the water suck out of the rapidly drying body and into her. She felt herself slowly growing strength back. She had pulled it from him. She had just murdered that Hydra agent, without thought, without intent. She had completely pulled all of the water out of his body, left him a dry, dull husk on the ground, slowly breaking into dry pieces.

She let out a groan, sitting up, careful not to bump her broken arm. The pain she felt from it had faded away days ago but she didn’t want to accidentally bring it back. She leaned against the wall for support, looking at one palm, small and skaing, keeping her other arm tucked closely to her body. She could feel the energy in there, the power. 

Ward didn't know what she could do, well, not what she could _really_ do. He had prepared for every physical ability he knew about her. He just hadn't prepared for the unknown. She grabbed onto the bars with her good hand, closed her eyes, and let the power go out of her. She froze those bars so solid that the metal was malleable enough. She pulled her hand away and shakily closed her good hand into a fist. With a grunt, she slammed it against the bars. Nothing. 

With a heaving sigh, she put her open hand on the metal again and tried harder, spreading her frost over more of the metal, covering the thing bars the whole way through. Then she stepped back, took a deep breath, and braced herself, before thrusting her entire weight against the metal, leaning in with her shoulder. Then again. And again. She felt the metal finally, blessingly, groan and snap against her force. She tumbled out into the dark hall, biting hard onto her lower lip to keep from crying out in pain. She lay there for a moment, in silence, listening for the sound of footsteps, of Hydra agents coming to throw her back in another cell. There was nothing. It was quiet. She was on her way towards being free.

Staggering back to her feet, she finagled the black coat off of the dead Hydra agent (easy enough, seeing his body was dehydrated and crumbled to bits when she pulled on the black sleeve). Biting her lower lip to keep from crying out in pain, she fashioned the black into a makeshift sling. It would do, for now. And once her broken arm was settled in the sling, the pain slowly eased away once more. Now, she just had to find an exit. 

Carefully, Asia limped her way down the halls, using the wall to her right for support of her weaker ankle. Sprained, probably, bruised for her. Ward had taken away her shoes long ago so he could cut and hit and burn at her feet, trying to get at her secrets. Bits of rubble and gravel on the cold cement floor bit into the arch of her bare feet, but she could hardly feel it anymore. All she could feel was the animalistic desire to get out of the hellhole. She kept close track of every turn she made. It must be night, because she hadn't seen any other guards or heard anything. Maybe no one thought she had a chance of getting out. Poor luck on them.

Finally, she found a thin metal ladder leading upwards. She could feel the water up there, closer now than ever before, and that hope gave her the strength to pull herself upwards. It was a difficult task, only one hand available, but she made due. She had received training for this. She knew exactly what she was getting into when she grabbed that first bar and pushed herself upwards. 

At the top of the ladder was a round cover, almost like a sewer lid. She pushed it open, with surprising ease,and suddenly found herself surrounded. Surrounded by snow and water, relief, pure and sweet. She scrambled out of the tunnel and fell into the snow, laying there for a moment, dragging as much of the liquid as she could towards herself, until she felt stable enough to stand again and look around. 

She was in a small clearing in the woods, snow covering the entire space. The snow hung heavy on the branches of the nearby trees, some bare from fall and winter, some laden with pine needles. She had absolutely no idea where she was, though she was guessing Northern America or perhaps Canada. Carefully, she began to limp out towards the woods. She would find her way to a road eventually, and then, eventually, a car. A car would get her home, even if it had to be stolen. She would do what she had to do. 

For the first time in days, she felt hope. 

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Fitz was in the Lab with Simmons that night. It was late and everyone else had gone to sleep hours ago, but he needed something to keep his mind off the situation at hand. He couldn't realistically go back to his own room, or to Asia's, not without the memories sinking in. He had to work. If he kept all of his focus on work, then he the grief didn't take over. It would be easy to do, to let it drag him down and never get up from it. But if he did that, he would never live it down. Asia wouldn't want him acting like that. She would want him being productive, she would want him figuring out where exactly she was, how to bring her home. 

Simmons was looking much better, which also helped him feel slightly okay. She had cut her hair, was back to wearing her old clothes rather than padding around in sweats all day. And she was working again, now that she had a project she could think about and focus on. He figured that helped her feel slightly okay again, too, putting herself back to work to help find the man who had saved her. 

Jemma sighed, taking off the magnifying glasses she had been wearing and sliding the sample across her desk. "Some days, it just feels useless," she said, turning to look Fitz, this sad look in her eyes. "We don't even know if we can get back, and really, I don't even know if...if Will is still alive." She shook her head in frustration. "And I never will, unless we're able to get back."

"That's a lot to think about," Fitz said with a nod, setting down his own tools and turning to face his teammate, leaning back against the metal table behind him for support. "And I understand the weight of it, the not knowing. I'm...in that same place right now." A look of obvious recognition came across Simmons' face, how could she have forgotten after all. He was in just as much pain right now, just as much struggle. 

"Perhaps I don't need to find him," She said, testing out how the words felt in her own mouth as she said them. "Perhaps all I need is here," she took a step towards him so there was less than a foot of space between them.

Leo did not like this, not one bit. He shook his head, swallowing hard. "Simmons, you're not in a good head space right now. I think whatever you're thinking of doing you...shouldn't." He muttered, feeling as if he should back away, if it weren't for the metal of the table pressing firmly into his back. 

Jemma Simmons shook her head, "No, I think I'm in a rather good space, thanks." She wasn't listening to him, and Leo didn't know why. All he knew she she kept closing the space until her breath was on his face and her lips were on his. Seconds later, right as he started to push her away.

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It had been a bitch and a half trying to get back, it really had, Asia thought to herself, as she let the stolen motorcycle fall to the ground inside the hangar. Yet, she had made it back all the same. She was able to get one of the doors to let her in based on finger printing, facial recognition, and a drop of blood. More work than she would have liked and she didn't exactly have a ton of blood to spare right now.

Inside, finally, to safety, she dragged herself along the halls. She needed to get to the Lab. She had a feeling that someone would be there. She was't sure who, but if anyone was awake now, they'd be hard at work. She hoped it was Leo. She hoped he hadn't seen those tapes, that Ward had kept them to himself for whatever sick reasoning. She didn't have the most positive feeling about that, though. 

She had had to steal a car and a bike to get here, because she didn't have money for gas. So it had pretty long and arduous overall. All she wanted to do was lay in her bed, with Leo, and not get up for a week. The thought of that was what kept her going, kept her moving. She was feeling stronger now, having the opportunity to drink some water, soak up more snow. It had been a long drive from Canada. But she was still hurt and beat to hell and needed a nap. 

She could see the lights from the Lab from around the corner. Good. Someone was up. Someone would be able to help her. 

She rounded the corner and stopped, freezing in her tracks as she stared at the figures inside the Lab. Jemma and Leo. Jemma and Leo as Jemma stepped towards him and kissed him.

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The entire room dropped rapidly by 50 degrees as Leo pushed Jemma back from him, about to protest, when all of the windows surrounding the Lab shattered, frost and ice rippling across them before the broke, glass raining down everywhere. Every test tube, cracked. Frost tore over ever metal surface and Leo had to pull away from the desk behind him to avoid the burn of the cold.

He looked up and saw something he never imagined he would. Asia, standing there, looking destroyed, staring back at him. She looked broken on those tapes, but even more broken now, seeing as she had just seen the man she loved being kissed by another person. After all she had been through. Immediately, he pushed Jemma even further away from him and started jogging towards her. 

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As soon as he started moving towards her, shouting, "Asia, it's not what you think," she flicked her wrist in a circle, a wall of clear ice rising from floor to ceiling between them, stopping him in his tracks. Tired, she turned and hobbled off back down the hall, exhausted. She kept going, pushing herself towards exhaustion. She knew the door she needed to find.

She wasn't sure how long the wall would last and she needed to get to where she wanted to go before he was able to come after her. After turning down a couple of halls, she reached the door she was looking for. Pushing in with her one good hand, she entered the room with the pool in it. 

Long, blue, and rectangular was Sheild's workout pool. It would work for now, she supposed. Tugging on her hastily made sling, it fell to the ground. Limping forward, Asia stood at the edge of the white, grainy diving board. With a small sigh, she stepped off, throwing herself into the pool.

Initially, she was hit with pain as her broken arm made impact with the water. But as the water accepted her as its own, she felt nothing but peace. Slowly, the water began to freeze, ice rippling out from her body towards the edge of the pool. Surrounded by her own little nest, Asia could finally rest.


	21. Chapter 21

Jemma spent the next few days studying Asia, floating, frozen inside the pool. The ice never seemed to thaw, pure frost radiating from the woman's body. She felt bad. This was partially her own fault, for what she did, and she recognized that. Things might have been different if she hadn't been so bloody stupid and stubborn and just admitted to herself what was really going on. So Jemma what she could to help try and make things better. She watched, and studied, and took notes to make sure that Asia was doing alright. Still alive. And she was. Her body was slowly healing itself. It was interesting to watch, from a scientific standpoint. It was like the water around her was making rapid repairs. Her arm, which was clearly broken, was easing back into setting itself straight. Her cuts were slowly healing, her bruises fading. It was quite miraculous really, if not strange.

It was days before the ice began to thaw. Jemma was the first one to even notice it, because she was always there. She to had to be, because if she wasn't, then Fitz would be, and he wouldn't sleep a wink knowing someone wasn't with her at all times. So she set up a little research station there for herself, with a cot and everything, so she could keep an eye on the brunette Inhuman tucked safely away beneath the surface. Other agents on their team came and went, fretting over the situation in their own various ways (Hunter even climbed on top of the ice and tried tapping above her head, as if this would wake her). But Jemma was the only one there when it finally happened.

It was a sharp pop, like the sound of a balloon being stabbed with a needle, when the first crack came. It shot her out of her sleep like a bullet. Sitting up from behind her desk, she looked out at the pool, wrapping her robe around herself and crawling forward, getting down on her hands and knees to lean over the edge of the concrete, peering down at the blue water. It was...glowing, faintly, but glowing all the same. Jemma reached out her hand and touched the hard surface, pulling her hand back immediately. The surface was hot. 

Standing back, Jemma stumbled back towards her desk, grabbing her radio and calling for Coulson to come down immediately. As soon as she set the radio down, there was a sound similar to hundreds of plates all shattering at once. Jemma whirled around again to look back at the pool.

Jemma was the only one there to see the entire surface of the pool shatter into millions of tiny fragments. And she was the only one to see Asia's body hover up out of the pool, eyes glowing blue, shards of ice floating in the air around her. Jemma stared up at her friend in awe. The entire event only lasted for a few seconds, ten at the very most. Then, the light fell from her eyes and Asia's body dropped from the air, landing on top of the surface of the pool, her body resting atop it as if it were solid, as if little waves didn't lap at the edges with her impact.

Jemma sat there for a moment, hands pressed against the concrete floor to support herself, stunned by what she had just seen. What sort of wild display of power had she just witnessed? She had never seen Asia like that before, wasn't even sure Asia knew she was able to do something like that. And only Jemma had seen it. She looked up at the corner of the room where a small camera was set, little red light blinking. Well, only person who had witnessed it in person.

She got onto her knees, looking out at the pool. Asia was just lying there, floating on the surface, as if she were lying on the ground. As if she were simply taking a nap. Her wounds looked healed, she looked alright, albeit still not awake. 

Suddenly, the door was thrown open. Jemma turned to look, expecting Coulson. A blur of black and navy went racing by, Jemma hardly even able to recognize who it was at first. As her vision came into focus, Jemma was the only one to see Leo Fitz running, fully clothed, into the water, wading towards Asia's body, the cold water weighing down his clothes. 

He wrapped his arms around her limp body pulling her towards him, and dragging her out of the water with him. He pulled her up the stairs, sitting down on the edge with her, rocking back and forth and brushing her hair back from her face. "I was so worried," he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers. It was then that Jemma realized Asia was awake. 

Asia was nodding her head, eyes still shut, but clinging back to Leo. "I am so sorry, Asia, I am so, so sorry," Jemma heard Leo say. The rest of their words were lost on her, whispers shared between two lovers, only meant for one another.

Finally, Coulson walked into the room, followed closely by Daisy who was pressing to get past him, anxious to see her friend, see that she was doing okay. The look on Daisy's face when she saw Asia moving, saw her lips forming words, was one of pure relief. She stopped, leaning against the wall for support, breathing with relief.

"Is she alright?" Coulson asked, directing the question at both Fitz and Simmons, as both had entered the room prior to him. Jemma looked towards Leo for the answer. 

Leo brushed back another piece of the woman's damp hair, helping her sit up straighter, still half soaked in pool water from their position on the stairs. "Sir, why don't you ask her yourself?" He said with a big smile, nodding towards Asia, who no longer appeared bent a brutalized as she had on those videos. 

"I'm doing alright, Sir," Asia replied with a small nod, testing out the use of her voice again. It had been a long while since she had spoken to anyone, and she sounded like she had a frog in her throat. But it felt good, to speak again, to be around the people who cared about her. 

"Fitz, get her back to her room. Let's make sure she's comfortable and we'll do a full medical evaluation," Coulson ordered, but he, too, was smiling. This was the kind of news they needed. This was a win.


	22. Chapter 22

"There you go," Leo said with a nod, easing Asia onto her bed, a bed that smelled to her, like the man she loved, for the first time in a long time. He placed a pillow beneath her head, before turning, undoing the buttons on his soaking wet shirt to put on a different jumper. 

"Have you..have you been sleeping in here?" She asked him quietly, trying not to stare at the muscles on his back as he pulled a maroon sweater over his head. She couldn't help but stare at him with admiration. She never could, not when it came to him. She found him perfect, regardless of what situation they were in. She always had loved him, always would, even now. 

"Yea," He muttered through the fabric of the red sweater as he tugged it over his head. "I had to, I was so worried," he replied, tossing his wet shirt to the hamper. "When I found out...when I saw those videos, I thought you were dead. I didn't want to forget what it felt like to be with you, what you smelt like, what it was like to wake up in the morning and pull you next to me." He turned to her, a pained look on his face. "I was terrified, Asia. I know I haven't been as....as good to you, as I should have been, these past few months, but my God, I thought you were _dead_. I was bloody terrified." 

Asia sat up, crawling towards the edge of the bed and reaching out, snagging his wrists and pulling him closer towards her. "But I'm right here," she reminded him, trying to stop him from spinning into a full anxiety attack. "I'm not dead, I'm okay, and I'm right here." She look his right hand and placed it on her chest, where he could feel her heart beating beneath the black shirt, the same one she was wearing when she disappeared, now torn and tattered. His left pinky slipped through one of the cuts and brushed against her bare skin, goosebumps covered her skin instantly and the soft touch. 

"Yes, you are. And I'm never letting you out of my sight again, do you understand?" He said, closing his eyes as he felt her beating heart beneath his hand. When he opened his eyes, she was smiling, ever so slightly, up at him. Just this tiny twitch of the lips. "I'm so sorry," he said again. "And what you saw in the Lab....after fighting your way back here? Unacceptable. I need you to know I didn't want that. I'm not interested in Simmons. She's one of my best friends, sure, but she's not my person. That's _you_ , Asia. You're my person, you always will be. Nothing, not time, not space, not distance, nothing will change that."

Asia nodded, listening to his words, sussing out if there was any lack of truth to them. That was her specialty after all, finding out if someone had something to hide. But there was nothing but truth in his words, in his eyes. She knew he meant what she said, even if how he had behaved was ridiculous. While the thought of Jemma kissing him still left a bitter taste in her mouth, she couldn't, and wouldn't, hold it against him forever. 

"I'll talk to her about it," Asia said with a small nod. "Make sure she understands not to try something like that again." She looked up at him, eyes wide, but not angry. He was so relieved to see her not angry. He wouldn't have blamed her if she were, of course. He would have been, if roles were reversed, so he expected her to be. But he was glad she wasn't. 

"Please don't kill her," he said, brushing back her hair and pressing a warm kiss to her forehead. Asia rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling through the kiss. It felt good, having him there, in front of her, lips on her skin like she hadn't felt for months. She reached up, threading both of her fingers through his, linking their hands tightly.

"Never," She replied, pulling him down towards her till their heads were able to touch, pressing her forehead to his. "You're my person, too," she replied. "You feel like home." She could feel him smile and she felt for the first time in a while that she was in the place she was supposed to be. 

Carefully, Leo sat down on the bed beside her, pressing his hand to her cheek and cupping her face. "Don't ever scare me like that again, okay?" He said, with a small smile. "No getting captured, no filming goodbye videos, none of that. Understood?" 

"Of course," she said with a smile, nuzzling into his neck. "But I will have to go back, eventually. He has my sister, Leo," she explained, shaking her head. "I saw her. It wasn't a ruse. I could feel it. And whatever Hydra did to her...she's like...she's like me. She's Inhuman and they changed her. She can make things burn." 

"Huh.." Leo mused over this for a while. "So she's like your opposite. Didn't Lincoln talk about how Inhumans were made to balance out others? She's your balance...and your hers." Asia nodded, the information made sense, but it didn't make the situation any less terrible than it was. The only thing which made things less terrible was knowing Leo was here with her now.

"We'll find her," Leo said, kissing her forehead again, "I promise we will." He meant every word of it. He'd move mountains for this woman in front of him, and he wanted to ensure she never forgot that, ever again. He pulled him towards her until she was sitting in his lap. "Together we can do anything, you and me."

"Of course we can," She replied, pressing her lips firmly against his. "We agreed on it before, two years ago. Birds of a feather, right?"

"Right," he agreed into her kiss, pulling him towards her, not wanting to spend another minute of time apart from her, not in this lifetime or any other.


	23. Chapter 23

Asia leaned forward, wiping her hand across a small square of the fogged mirror in front of her. The steam from the hot shower she was running had fogged the glass up almost instantly. She leaned forward against the sink, closing her eyes and letting the heavenly thought of the hot water coating her body, running over her bare skin and drawing paths down her form fill her mind. She let out a sigh at the thought of it. She needed a hot shower right now, after the week she had. 

She reached down and tightened the white towel around her form so that she could brush out the tangles in her hair. When she opened her eyes to glance into the small rectangle she had cleaned in the mirror, a pairing of eyes were staring back at her, blue and hungry. 

"Leo," Asia said in a warning tone, turning around to look at him with an amused smile on her face. He was standing there, sweater long discarded, wearing nothing but a pair of blue plaid boxer shorts. "If you were going to get up, why didn't you just shower with me?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the sink behind her for support.

"I didn't want to miss a moment I could have spent beside you," Leo replied with a shrug, stepping into the steamy bathroom and wrapping her small frame in a hug, kissing her gently on the lips. "Shame I missed out on the shower though." 

She pushed him lightly on the shoulder, laughing. "Probably best you did, I did enough damage on you last night." She swiped her thumb over the right side of his neck and right shoulder, both of which had purple and red bite parks left by her own teeth. "I'm sure your skin could use a little break."

"Just because it could doesn't mean I want it to," he replied cheekily, pressing a peck to the tip of her nose. "But also, we've got work to do today."

"Of course we do," Asia replied with a sigh, looking up at the man she loved. At least she would get to spend her time at work with him. That was the biggest perk to their job, she thought to herself. "I thought all of that might have gone by the wayside when I was gone." Her words were dripping with sarcasm and it made Leo roll his eyes. 

"Keep up that _sass_ , Miss," he whispered into her ear, tugging on her ear lobe between his teeth. "And you'll find yourself bedridden for a week." His words were gentle, not real threats, nothing scary about them, but they made her heart race all the same. He always had that effect on her. She smiled up at him, unable to keep the happy expression from her face.

Leo let out a groan. "It's hard when you look at me like that, makes what I have to tell you next even harder," he said with a pout, brushing a strand of hair from her face and holding her cheeks in both of his hands. "But you have to go get an exam. In the Lab. Physical and Psych, before they'll let you out in the field." 

There was a sinking feeling in Asia's gut. Of course they were going to want that, it was practically Shield 101. It made sense to her that this was coming, even if she didn't want it. Frankly, she was surprised that she hadn't been quarantined the second she had come out of the ice. Coulson must have played a hand in that. Yet, she didn't want the exam, she didn't want people with needles and notes getting anywhere near her. She shuddered at the thought.

Leo pulled her closer to him, holding her tightly and resting his head atop hers. "It will be alright, I'll be there the whole time, yea?" He said softly, hands running through her still damp hair. "There's nothing to worry about. I've got you." And of course, he did have her. That was all good and fine and helpful, but he would never really understand. He wouldn't understand what it felt like to have your very soul ripped to shreds from your body and have there be nothing you can do to stop it.

She looked up at him and tried her very best to put on a brave face. She was a superspy after all, faking it till she made it was practically her MO. This would be no different she supposed. So she allowed her boyfriend to slip his hand into hers, lace their fingers together, and lead her back out to the bedroom. She let him help pick out an outfit, nothing out of the norm, black leggings and a zipup black jacket. He brushed her wet hair and told her awkward jokes and she laughed along as if things were fine. But in her stomach, the dread pooled like acid.

"Come on then," he said, pulling her up from her position seated on the bed. "Let's go get you checked out so you can get back to doing what you love. Being in the field." She nodded, and let him pull her along. Her senses felt hyperaware. Every drip of water, every turn of the sink, she felt all of it and it made her twitchy. She could feel every water signature enter and move about the building they made. _This is probably what being on acid feels like,_ she thought to herself as they rounded the corner towards the Lab.

Jemma was standing in there, along with Coulson. That much was expected. But what Asia didn't expect was the two other figures standing in the florescent light. She recognized them on instant and surged forward, breaking her handhold from Leo to shove through the glass doors of the Lab, moving at full sprint until she barreled headlong into Clint Barton's chest, arms wrapping tightly around him. She felt Natasha's hands on her shoulders, squeezing them gently. 

It had been so long since she had seen her mentors. Too long, if she had a say about it. And now they were here. "How?" She asked, pulling out of the hug to look between the two Avengers. "Why?" 

"Because you were hurt, dork," Nat rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Yet, a hint of a smile hung on her red, pouty lip. "Had to make sure you were alright. And, figure out who I have to kill." 

"Uh, who _we_ have to kill," Clint elbowed his partner in the ribs. "Cause I also have an ax to grind." 

Asia shook her head, grateful to have people like Natasha and Clint in her life. "There's more important things for the Avengers to be handling, I'm sure," she teased, glancing at Coulson with a raised eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest in a fashion which mimicked Natasha.

Coulson shrugged. "Missions, maybe. Time to visit your old trainee? That's one of the most important things there is." He said, giving Asia a small smile. He knew that Asia had been through a lot. More than most people would survive and come back to tell the tale of. So when Nat and Clint insisted they check up on her, he wasn't about to stop them. Not to mention they were still two of his best agents. He wasn't about to get on their bad sides. 

"Well," He stood up straight from the table he had been leaving against. "I'll leave you to your catching up. Simmons, if anything odd comes back in the results, I'll be in my office." He nodded at everyone individually, before exiting the Lab.

Asia had almost forgotten why she was here, now. If it weren't for Coulson's words and a Shield Psychologist walking in clutching a clipboard to replace him, she might have. But the sinking feeling returned to her stomach when the psychologist sat down beside the exam table and Jemma snapped on her white gloves. With a pit of despair filling her stomach, she slowly climbed up onto the table and leaned back, ready for the Hell to begin.


	24. Chapter 24

"What about that?" Jemma asked, pricking Asia's right toe with a sharp needle. She looked up to watch the Agent's reaction while and psychologist took notes on her metal clipboard. 

Asia winced, her toes curling. "Yes, Jemma, I can feel it. And it hurts. They have all hurt." She tried to curl her foot away from the doctor's grasp, looking to Nat, Clint, and Leo for assistance. They all seemed to do nothing but shrug uncomfortably and urge her to continue through the procedure so she could be done with it.

Jemma sighed, patting her foot and standing back up straight to turn to her table. "I know, Asia. It isn't easy. We just are trying to make sure you're in tip top shape. Next, I need to draw blood, then we will need to scan you're body and make sure Ward hasn't placed any trackers into your system." Jemma explained the process carefully, picking up a needle filled with a light numbing liquid and flicking it a couple times. 

"He didn't," Asia said with a shake of her head. "You don't need to check, because he didn't." She said so with such certainty that it made both Jemma and the Psychologist, Dr Cho, pause to look at her. 

"How can you be so sure?" Jemma asked, setting the needle back down and turning to look at her teammate. Asia had been through so much recently, it was possible she was simply delusional or wanted the inspection to stop. "He could have done it while you were sleeping."

"He didn't," Asia said, shaking her head firmly. "And I know. Placing a tracker into my system would hurt, right?" She looked back and forth between the doctors in the room, Leo included.

"Well, yes," Jemma said with a nod after thinking for a moment. "I cannot speak firsthand, but I believe the placement of a tracker into one's body could be considered quite painful."

"That's how I know," Asia replied back with a shrug. "If it was causing pain, he wanted me awake for it..." A silence fell over the room, hanging heavy like dense smoke. Asia could practically feel it curling all around her, coating her body, invading her lungs. What she had said was true. Ward had woken her up many times just to make sure she felt the complete pain of her torture. He wouldn't miss an opportunity to hurt her like that. She felt absolutely certain.

"Alright, well," Jemma said in a matter-of-fact tone. "A simply x-ray should do then. Nothing invasive. You'll hardly even know it's happening. But first, I would like to draw some blood. We need to make sure you aren't poisoned and haven't been given any sort of lethal injections." She held up the syringe full of numbing liquid again, inspecting it under the light. "I will inject this light sedative just to numb the area while I draw blood and plasma to test as well as administer some routine shots." As Jemma explained the process, she wiped the woman's arm down with iodine. "You won't feel anything but a slight pinch."

As Jemma explained the process and moved closer to Asia, the agent's body went ridged. "No," she breathed out, pulling her legs tighter into herself and yanking her arm from Jemma's grasp. "Don't put that anywhere near me." The fear was irrational, she knew that, but it was reflexive. She saw the needle and instantly all the memories of her time kept captive flooded back.

Her voice wavered as she shook her head, looking to Natasha for help. Natasha would know that look in her eyes, recognize what she needed in that moment. She knew it, as well as she knew herself.

The second she and the redhead locked eyes, her gaze snapped upwards. "Everyone out, except for me and the good doctors here." She snapped her fingers, barking the orders at those around them. She turned to Clint and Leo. "You two, also," she said with a curt nod. There was no question in her voice - no one would be allowed to disregard this rule.

Clint look as if he were about to object, but a small, sharp shake of Natasha's head put any idea of that completely to rest. Leo knew better than to argue with a woman like Natasha - he didn't want to wind up with his arm twisted behind his back and quite potentially dislocated from his shoulder socket. That didn't sound particularly like his idea of a good time. Quietly and quickly, the others all shuffled out of the Lab, leaving Jemma, Dr. Cho, Natasha, and Asia behind. 

"Alright, Dr. Simmons. Hand me the syringe, please," Natasha said calmly, holding out her open palm for Jemma to place the needle in. Her face was without expression, without emotion. But the tone of her voice advised she was not to be questioned on this. Hesitantly, Jemma placed the needle into Natasha's waiting hand. 

"Alright, Asia," Natasha said, turning to her formal pupil and cocking her head slightly. "You going to give me a problem on this one?" She held the syringe up and looked at her bare arm. "Cause I'd really prefer you didn't."

Asia looked up at her mentor and wanted to refuse, but she couldn't. The woman in front of her had such a hardset gaze, one that could not be questioned. The years of training taught her to know better than that. So, bleakly, she nodded. "Understood," she said quietly, rolling to offer up her arm, and so that she would not see the needle go in.

"Agent Monroe," Dr. Cho spoke up as Natasha got to work, taking all the tasks away from Jemma as she did so. "I would like to discuss again the events of what happened during your time in captivity. What happened that made you so nervous of these needles?"

"I was tortured," Asia replied flatly, with just a hint of sarcasm. "He used many tools on me, needles included. I'll get over it, just have to get through it first." Her response was very logical, however Dr. Cho didn't seem to find it adequate enough to end the conversation.

"Alright, that is understandably very traumatic. It's quite big of you to know that you'll be able to get past this. After all, you are a trained Shield agent." The woman nodded, a strand of her black hair falling in front of her face as she did so. She carefully tucked the strand back behind her ear before jotting down some additional notes on her pad. "All in all, you were gone for twelve days. The torture lasted for the entirety of your time there?" She waited for Asia to nod 'yes' in response before she pushed on towards the next question. "Close your eyes and picture the space, please."

Asia shot Natasha a glance, before shutting her eyes and doing as the psychologist asked. "It's black, and I'm back in my cell. Eyes, they get used to the darkness after a while, you know?" She shrugged. "Ward is outside of the cell, sometimes inside. When he's inside, he bring tools with him, and my sister is outside of the cell, watching. Making sure I can't kill him, as much as I want to. He pulled my nails out, he bled me, he cut me, he held my eyes open to where I couldn't see anymore, and then when I couldn't see, he'd cut me more. He broke my arm. He burned me. Name a torture device, it's probably on the list." 

"I see," The doctor took down notes, pausing for a moment as if to think. "How did it feel? Not the pain, but to have someone you considered a friend, someone you were incredibly close with, doing those things to you?"

The question caught Asia off guard. She jerked upwards, nearly ripping the needle from her arm which Natasha had only just finished inserting in to draw blood. "What do you mean _how did it feel_?" She spat the words out angrily at the doctor. She wondered if the woman was intentionally trying to push her buttons in all of the wrong ways. 

"I meant exactly what I asked. How did it feel? That sense of betrayal?" The woman repeated her question, staring at her with an unnerving intensity. 

"It felt like shit," Asia replied evenly, trying to slow her breaths down as much as possible. "But he's done it before, and there's nothing out there that will keep him from betraying us all again. Nothing except for death." As she said the words, their weight, the realization that they were true, clutched around her throat.


	25. Chapter 25

She was cleared to the field again, that was all that mattered. And just in time too - the team had a mission. Well, Daisy, Coulson, Asia, and..unfortunately, the director of the ATCU had a mission. They were going to NORAD in Colorado to present alongside the ATCU. A presentation in front of the President. It wasn't Asia's first choice of return to work missions, but it would do for now. It was good to be out again, sailing through the air in Zephyr One. 

"Feeling better?" Daisy asked her as Asia lounged in one of the kitchen spaces on board, munching on an apple. She was wearing a high collared, dark grey sweater and black pants. A traditional Daisy staple outfit, if Asia had to pinpoint a vibe. 

"Yea, I'm doing alright," the brunette replied with a shrug. "I'm glad to be doing something, rather than being cooped up at Base. I was going crazy." She stretched her hands, cracking her fingers as she did so. "I don't want to get rusty, you know? Then if...if we run into Ward again, I'll be ready." 

"You were ready last time, they just tricked you," Daisy shook her head, opening the fridge and peeking in. "But I get what you mean. I'm down for some sparing later if you want." It was a casual gesture, but one that held a lot of weight between the two of them. It meant everything was okay. 

"Yea, I'd like that," Asia said with a small smile. A crack in her exterior, a chink in her armor. "Hey, Daisy?" She said suddenly, setting down her apple and sitting up straighter. "I did something, when I was escaping," she began to explain, setting her hands flat against the cool surface of the table. "There was this Hydra agent, outside my cage. I killed him." 

Daisy closed the fridge and turned to look at her, nose slightly scrunched. "Okay? You've killed lots of Hydra agents. You've never needed to repent before. You were escaping, you did what you had to do." It seemed so black and white to her friend, but Daisy didn't know what she had done yet, how she had done it.

"No, no, it wasn't the same," Asia tried to explain. "I killed him with my powers...I...." she shook her head in frustration, trying to find the right words to explain what exactly she had done. "I needed water, so badly. I could feel it, in him. Coursing through his whole body. And I was hungry for it. I didn't even realize what I was doing, that this was something I _could_ do." She shook her head, glancing up at her friend, then down at her finger tips. "I pulled all the water from him. I drained his entire body. He was nothing but dust when I left." 

Daisy looked at her for a moment, cocking her head to the side. "I mean, that's a new development, but it doesn't change what I said before." She grabbed a water bottle off a shelf and cracked it open, taking a swig. "They captured you, Asia. Took you away from us. Ward was going to kill you. You did what you had to do. Do you feel like you would accidentally do it to one of us?" She asked, hitting the nail on the head of the brunette's concerns. 

"I mean, part of me is worried. I don't think I actually would," Asia shook her head, unsure of her answer. "I don't think I would ever hurt anyone. But knowing that I could hurt you guys...that's what scares me. I couldn't live with myself if I ever did what I did to that Hydra guy to anyone on our team." 

Daisy shook her head, smiling ever so faintly. "That's the thing with you. Always worrying. Asia, you're the strongest Inhuman I know. I've never met someone who is so in tune with their own body, has every aspect under control. You had nothing to worry about. I mean that."

Asia looked up at her friend, reading between the lines on if she was telling the truth or not. She certainly wasn't lying, and that seemed like a good enough sign for Asia. She let out a sigh of air she hadn't realized she had been holding in.

Suddenly, almost as if on queue, another Shield agent, a young guy still mostly in training with sandy brown hair, burst into the room. "Agent Johnson, Agent Monroe," he said with a quick nod, trying to stand up straighter. "We've received a message from another Quinnjet, requesting to dock. I thought it might be best if this directive was passed onto the Director from one of you." 

Daisy and Asia glanced at one another. "We'll let him know," Asia said with a curt nod in response. "Thanks for the information, Agent...?" 

"Davis, M'am, Agent Davis," he said with a quick salute, as if he were addressing his commander in the army. Asia had to fight off a smirk. 

"Thank you, Agent Davis. We appreciate the information." Asia said again, giving a small wave as he left the room, before turning to Daisy. Both of the girls busted out in laughter.

"How long do you think this guy has been a part of Shield?" Asia asked in between gulps of air as she tried to catch her breath again. "Because he looked like he was about to freak out just talking to us. What do you think he's heard?" 

"Probably just that we're some of the two most badass women in this entire organization," Daisy replied with a grin, adjusting the sleeves of her sweater around her wrists. "And I'd say...maybe three months at most." She cracked a wry grin at her best friend, raising on eyebrow. "Now, shall we go let our fearless leader know about this development?"

Asia smiled back, "Yea, let's get to it."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asia and Daisy certainly hadn't expected to see Rosalind tying the knot in Coulson's tie when they entered the room, and yet, here they were. They moved apart when the two women entered, as if they were two teens caught doing something they shouldn't. Yet, Coulson didn't let any appearance of discomfort or embarrassment cross his face. 

Daisy flicked her eyes over to Asia then back towards their leader. "Sir, we just got word and wanted to let you know," she said, the discomfort still ringing true in her voice. Asia didn't blame her. She didn't alltogether trust Rosalind Price either. The world didn't need the ATCU. They had Shield, watching over them whether they knew it or not. And they were much better equipped to handle the way the world was changing than an organization with no experience. 

"What news?" Coulson asked, adjusting the shirt sleeves of his button up wrists. "Aren't we supposed to land soon?" 

"There's a Quinnjet requesting to dock," Asia replied, hands clasped behind her as she nodded towards him. "One of our, obviously. They've been cleared by the Captain, not sure who is on board." 

"Well," Coulson glanced at Rosalind and gave her a small smirk as if this were a normal, every day occurrence, "I suppose we should go greet our mystery guests then." Asia and Daisy stood aside and allowed the two to pass by them and head out towards the bridge. 

Asia moved to exit, but Daisy grabbed her arm, right below the elbow, stopping her. Asia paused, turning to face her friend and looking at her quizzically. 

"What do you think that was all about?" Daisy asked, nodding in the direction of Coulson and Rosalind walking away. "I don't get a good feeling about it."

Asia studied the two of them for a moment as they walked away, pondering Daisy's question. "I don't think we have to worry yet." She replied finally.

"What do you mean?" Daisy asked, shaking her head and gesticulating towards the pair as they walked away. "She's sinking her claws into him and she's going to-"

Asia cut her off by covering her friend's mouth with the palm of her hand, shaking her head and motioning her to quiet down. "I said _yet_. I'm not saying it's not a problem. I'm just saying, don't worry. Yet."


	26. Chapter 26

"We've got a problem," Mack said after he dropped down from a ladder and marched into the room. Honestly, that was not who Asia expected to see coming out of the freshly docked Quinnjet. However, the person who descended after him that really surprised her. Lincoln, with his sandy blonde hair and a grim look on his face, marched towards them, fists clenched with nerves. Surprised her so much that she almost stopped walking. She could feel Daisy tense up beside her at the sight of him.

"You alright?" Asia whispered quietly, as the two paused beside one of the computer screens. Daisy gave her a small nod to signal she would be okay. Asia imagined it wasn't easy on her, regardless of what she said. She had tried to bring Lincoln in and it hadn't worked out. Now here he was, of his own accord. 

"Lincoln," Daisy said boldly, stepping forward, "What are you doing here?"

Before he could even answer, Mack spoke up for him. "He came to me, he's the reason I even know there's an issue, he's the reason we're going to be able to fix it." He paused for a moment, almost as if for dramatic effect. "He has intel on Lash." Those words almost made Asia's blood run cold. Well, colder than it already was. 

"What kind of intel?" Asia asked, shifting her gaze to Lincoln, but he wasn't looking back at them. He had his eyes locked on Rosalind Price. 

"Is she ATCU?" He asked, voice hardened and dark as he jabbed an accusatory finger in her direction. No one could really blame him. If it weren't for the ATCU and Rosalind's goons, Lincoln would have been safely back with them, long ago.

"She is," Coulson confirmed, stepping forward slightly as if to Shield the woman. "She's with us now. We're a team." He looked at Lincoln with a narrow gaze, daring the youth to challenge him on this call.

Lincoln sighed, shaking his head. "Fine, fine. This is too important to delay..." He took a deep breath. "The Inhumans who were from Afterlife, the ones who grew up there, learned there, we were taught to blend in. Yet, even with all our training, it still finds us. All of my friends, they're dead now." 

"I checked the names that Lincoln gave me against the bodies we have been able to find and identify," Mack explained. "They match." 

"And that's how I knew," Lincoln nodded, giving Mack a look of thanks. "And that's how I knew. I'm positive Lash is using Jiayang's ledger."

"Her...what?" Asia asked, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against a desk, feigning composure as if her interest hadn't just peaked. She had never heard of this before, not even a whisper or a mention. And anything interesting from Afterlife always made her slightly on edge, but also slightly hopeful too. There was so much about their people that wasn't understood, that Asia yearned to know, to understand, to spread and end the stigma that she and the others were nothing but dangerous monsters. 

"Her ledger," Lincoln continued, gesturing as he explained. "She kept a written record of all of the Inhumans, a genealogy of sorts, to study who was chosen, how, and when. Up until she died, no one else had access. No one else was allowed to even look inside, because it could give away the location of others, and give away their safety."

"But then Shield recovered it after the battle on board the ship," Mack explained. "It was collected for studying, but there's only one person I know of who actually had access to it."

"And that's Dr. Garner?" Coulson asked, to which Mack nodded in response. Coulson shook his head in disbelief. "That's no possible. There's no way he would turn against his own team like that."

"Just so I'm clear here," Daisy said, cutting in. "You're not just saying he has the ledger. You're saying that Andrew is _Lash_? Just trying to make sure, because that sounds a little crazy." 

Mack nodded, frowning slightly as he did so. He knew this wouldn't be easy, for any of them. "I watched May access his flight logs this morning. I think she figured it out, that she knows. So now she's either on his side, or ours."

"There's no way May would ever try and hurt us," Asia said calmly, shaking her head with the definiteness of her answer.She knew the woman well by now, knew she would never put Daisy or Asia in harms way, especially not intentionally.

"I had just gotten word that May and Andrew are both MIA, a little while ago," Coulson said, putting two and two together. "Reroute the plane," He said suddenly, turning towards one of the agents typing away at a computer. "New York, and pull all sat footage from the Cocoon. We need to know if he took her out of there." He turned to Rosalind with a sigh, "Unfortunately, you're going to have to tell the President he'll have to wait." He said with a shrug. 

"That isn't even the worst of it," Lincoln said to Daisy and Asia as Coulson and Rosalind walked away. "I think he's still in Transition. Inhumans...they can't change form like that, can't turn it on and off. I think eventually, Andrew will be stuck like that, stuck as Lash, someone who doesn't even really know who we are."

The words sunk heavily into the pit of Asia's stomach as she thought of the man who had come to know them all so well, both professionally, and outside of their work environment. He was apart of their team now, a reliable colleague, and a good friend. And yet, they might lose him forever. 

Would.

They would lose him forever. 

There really was no potential about it, it would happen. The Transition from human to Inhuman was unstoppable. Eventually, Andrew would be gone, and all that would remain would be the monster who had tried to kill them all.


	27. Chapter 27

There was a warehouse district, with a building that looked like apartments being constructed. Their agents had managed to track Andrew and May there, though it didn't seem that May had gone all-too-willingly. At least, that's how the footage made it seem. They wouldn't know for sure until they got inside. 

Coulson was going to be heading in first, to assess the situation, but Daisy, Asia, Lincoln, and Mack weren't far behind. And, apparently, some of the ATCU folks as well, for extra backup. You never could be too careful, even if Asia wasn't too thrilled about that specific idea. 

Yet, she could feel May and Andrew inside, if she stretched her senses enough, feel their two forms of water at least. Theoretically, they could be someone else, but she was pretty confident.

Mack radioed Daisy and Asia, who were walking down a dimly lit hall together. "Containment Module 2 is ready and armed," his voice crackled through their comms.

"Perfect," Daisy replied, glancing at Asia and giving her a nod, "We're almost done setting up on our end, too." They turned down another equally dark hall, pausing at the corner and looking out at the open quad below. They were ready, now all they had to do was wait for the word.

Over the comms, they could hear the conversation going on between Andrew and Coulson. Asia knew she could trust Coulson, but it was hard to feel confident when she could hear the words Andrew was saying as well. 

"I understand it's difficult, but you have to realize that you have an outbreak on your hands," Andrew's low voice, somewhat further away from Coulson's crisp and clear one. His words made the hairs on the back of Asia's neck stand up. She had never heard him speak that way about any of them before.

"Fuck." She could hear Lincoln curse over the comms. "What the hell does that mean? You hear what he's saying right?" She could hear the same unease in his normally cheerful, relaxed tone as well.

"We heard it," Daisy replied, evenly, trying to remain as neutral as possible. "We have to trust Coulson. He knows what he's doing." Daisy's words were somewhat reassuring. What wasn't quite as reassuring was the silence from Lincoln's end of the line. There was a nervous buzzing in the pit of Asia's stomach.

Andrew continued to carry on, giving a prolonged speech about weeding out the good from the bad, how it was his gift, his job to do just that. The entire thing was eerie. Asia had never heard this tone in Andrew's voice before.

"I don't think that's even him anymore," Lincoln continued. "The beast, it's going to come out of him any time now. He won't be able to control himself anymore when that happens. Someone's gotta stop him."

"We wait, we only move on Coulson's orders," Daisy replied back quickly, grabbing Asia's forearm and pulling her quickly down the hall and around another corner. Suddenly, the lights around them glow to life, flickering rapidly. The two women exchanged a glance, both knowing exactly where the source is.

"Where is he?" Asia asked her friend, leaning over the railing edge beside them, scouring the other floors and the ground below, looking for any sign of their sparky friend. She didn't see him anywhere, not moving through the shadows, not moving through the light. 

Daisy shook her head, unsure. Then, they heard the shouting on their comms. "Lincoln and Lash are headed for the east wing," barked Coulson's voice. "We need to get him in that Module." 

The two women exchanged glances, then took off running towards a set of stairs that would take them down a few floors and towards the east wing. They probably didn't have much time.

They could hear gunfire echoing. "We're on our way, Mack," Asia said quickly to the comms, taking the set of stairs down two at a time. They could hear gunfire echo and bounce off the concrete walls somewhere further ahead of them.

"Good, I could use a little help," Mack replied quickly, his breathing coming through heavy. The two women looked at each other nervously and picked up the pace. Whatever was going down, they'd like to get through it with all of their teammates intact. 

Out on the open quad now, the two agents heard screaming. Looking up, Lash was holding Rosalind by the throat over the ledge, her legs swinging wildly as she was stuck, nowhere safe to go. Suddenly, he released her, her body plummeting from four floors up, meaning nothing but certain death if she landed on the concrete beneath them.

As if on instinct, Daisy and Asia reacted in unison, throwing their hands forward. Daisy's vibrations were practically visible, rippling through the air like a cushion, slowing Rosalind's fall, while Asia drew a small slide of ice beneath her, ready to take her safely to the ground and land her on her feet. Daisy slowly lowered her until her body was at Asia's crafted slide, then released her, letting her slide safely down.

"I didn't know you could do that," Asia said, looking at Daisy and giving her a small shake of the head, and a high five.

"Honestly, I didn't either," Daisy replied, a little out of breath, but returning the celebratory gesture. 

Together, the two walked over to Rosalind, each extending a hand to help her to her feet. Rosalind looked between them both, a very serious look on her usually calm facade. "Thank you," she said in earnest. Asia nodded back, as if it were no big deal. And it wasn't, really, it was her job.

Coulson came jogging up, clearly flustered, worried, but glad to see Rosalind alive. "Are you alright?" He asked her as she brushed bits of dust and ice off of her blazer. 

"Yes, thanks to your agents here," She gave the two women another nod of respect. "I'll be just fine."

Coulson looked at the two of them and also nodded, appreciatively. "Great job, both of you," he affirmed, though the words of praise weren't altogether necessary.

"Where is Andrew now?" Daisy asked, bringing them back to the topic at hand and not the near-fatal incident they had all just witnessed.

"I'm not sure..." Coulson replied, his lips pressed into a thin, grim line. He was up there somewhere, where the rest of their team was, potentially doing just as terrible of things to them as he had tried to do to Rosalind only a while ago.

"We gotta get back up there," Daisy said with a stern nod. "He needs to be in that module. Now."


	28. Chapter 28

In the end, it was May who tricked her own ex-husband into the containment module. It was a difficult thing to watch, even more difficult to witness the aftermath. May had always been the strongest of them all, the one able to withstand all sorrow, the one able to bring them out of the darkness with simply her sheer will to survive and take care of her team. So seeing her look empty in the eyes, no determination, now power, just sorrow, made Asia feel like she had been hit with a heavy gut punch. 

Days like these made being an agent the hardest. Asia loved what she did, don't ever challenge her otherwise, but sometimes things were just so _weighted_ , like she accidentally swallowed a bar bell. It made her feel more exhausted then a full day of working out. It was a difficult thing to shake off. She wasn't tired, but she was exhausted. Her body wouldn't rest.

Dropping off her bag in her locker, she wrapped a soft, yoga sweater around her body, cocooning herself into a soft, grey cashmere. It was a gentle reminder she was home when she slipped her feet into comfy slippers and out of her work boots. She then left the locker room, padding down to a window at the end of the hall. 

The window looked out over the city, the lights of the sky scrappers twinkling, the soft moonlight dancing on the tree leaves below. It was comforting to look out, a reminder of how small she was in this vast universe. Her small problems really could not be too consequential in comparison to everything else going on out there.

She heard a small shift of a footstep behind her and she glanced over her shoulder, Leo appearing from the darkness, sleeves of his white button up rolled just slightly, a worried look on his face. 

"Can't ever sneak up on ya, can I?" He asked sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders and giving her a small smile. "I should know better by now." 

She smiled back at him, before turning to look back out at the stars outside, settling into the comfortability of him standing beside her in nothing but the light of the moon. 

"Is everything alright?" He asked her quietly, his elbow brushing gently against hers. She seemed off, and he had stayed up tracking their mission status and knew she was back at base. She hadn't come to bed, and his gut was bubbling with a little bit of anxiety. 

"Yea," she sighed, pressing her finger tips on the cool glass. "I just couldn't sleep after that mission. It was a lot..." She trailed off, staring up at the sky again. "I figured I was up already, I wanted to watch the sunrise. End things on a better note." It was a nice idea, to end things better than they were supposed to. A reminder that things could end okay, even if things were rocky in the beginning.

"It was, uh, it was that bad?" Leo asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the brick wall, so he could turn over and look towards her, silhouette outlined by the soft moon. "Do you want to talk about it? It might feel better to get things off of your chest, yea? I mean, um, maybe it won't. But I'd like to help if I can."

"May shot Andrew," she said with a shrug. "She didn't even know if the shots would kill him or not, but she did it to protect everyone. She had to...make that choice, that sacrifice. And the aftermath that was left behind, May didn't even look like herself anymore." She paused, touching three of her fingers to her lower lip, unsure if she was able to keep speaking. She felt Leo reach over and gently rest his hand on her shoulder for a moment before taking it away, a gentle reminder that she could say whatever she needed to around him. 

"Sometimes this job, it asks you to sacrifice so much. And it scares me," she turned to look at him, blinking to keep the tears back. "Because what if some day, they ask me to choose between you and the team." Her chin was wobbling and Leo could tell this was an event that had pushed her near to her breaking point. It was rare for him to see her like this. 

He blinked, trying to sort his thoughts and give her an appropriate response. "I would never ask you to choose me," He said after a moment. "Not over the safety of everyone else."

"I know you wouldn't," she smiled sadly at him, before turning to look back at the sunrise, just softly beginning to peak over the edge of the horizon. "But that isn't the problem. The problem is I...I don't know. I think I would choose you anyway." Her words hung in the air between them and she was scared of how he might respond. 

Leo wasn't surprised by those words, he felt a similar way. He could never _not_ choose her, no matter the price. "You know," he said after a moment of silence. "They gave me, um, the videos Ward made you record, back in his...prison thing." He shuffled for a moment, watching her tense slightly and turn to look at him. 

"So you watched all of those, then?" She whispered back to him, looking at them, then back outside. She vaguely remembered making them, though when she tried to remember back at them, the moments came back to her in a blur, like she had been underwater the entire time. But she was pretty sure she was far more open than she ever traditionally was. A hint of heat started to trickle into her cheeks.

"Erm, yea, I did. I didn't know if I would ever see you again, so..." he trailed off, scratching at the back of his head, then turning to look out the window with her. "I didn't know, um, didn't know you thought about settling down. In Perthshire." He chuckled, looking over at her at the same instant she looked at him. Both smiled at the other, realizing there was nothing scary here, rather something they were both realizing they wanted. "That's in Scotland," he tagged on, stating the obvious. 

"Leo, I know where Perthshire is," she looked at him, smiling. "I said it, didn't I?" 

"You did, you did," he confirmed, looking back out the window. "So, uh, all those things you said...you were pretty hurt at that time, not thinking everything all the way - "

Asia cut him off with a sharp shake of her head. "I may have been out of it, but everything I've ever said about you has always been true. Every word. Everything I said, about you, about us. I meant it then and I mean it now." She looked more serious than he had ever really seen her before.

"So," she said, turning back to the window, uncrossing her arms and staring outside again, the sun now egging over the horizon even more. "What do you think we should...do about it? About everything I said?" 

"For now," he said, standing up straighter and reaching over, linking his hand through hers, their fingers intertwining. "We can just watch the sunrise." 

Asia couldn't help but smile as his hand squeezed hers, and she squeezed back gently. He was here, with her, like he had always promised. And neither of them were going anywhere.


	29. Chapter 29

As Asia was working out, hitting a hanging punching bag in a small gym room branching off from one of the main halls running by the Lab, she heard a commotion. Brushing back strands of hair from her sweaty forehead, she stopped the bag and went to look around the corner out into the hall. Looking out she saw Leo fast walking towards another Lab agent, who was moving a cart full of boxes, each open and containing paperwork and books, some pieces of art as well. 

"Hey!" Leo barked at the guy in a tone Asia had rarely ever heard exit his lips, "Be careful with that! That's a priceless manuscript, you can't just go dropping things like this on the ground." He picked up a old, bound book with yellow pages, placing it delicately in the box once more. "Might as well go burn down the Lourve why don't you?" Asia hadn't seen him this exasperated in a moment. The agent looked at Leo then back at Asia, hands shaking nervously. He was a young kid, probably as young as she was when she had started with the agency. 

Asia gave him a small, sympathetic smile, shaking her head and telling him, with her eyes, to just go ahead and leave. She would handle the situation from here, and calms thing down a bit. That was one of her strengths after all, deescalation of situations. Especially when it came to him.

"Leo," she said, stepping forward and resting her hand on his right shoulder. "What's wrong? You're yelling at an intern. You practically scared him to death," she smiled as he turned to look at her, his eyes drinking her in even when she was a sweaty mess.

"They're just.." he let out a frustrated sigh. "They're all idiots. I know they mean well, but idiots all the same." He ran a hand over his face with more sounds of frustration, as he then rearranged the books in the box, making sure they were all stacked safely. "I'm sorry, it's just been a rough day. I don't mean to take it out on you...or them." 

"What are all these books for?" Asia asked, leaning against the wall, watching him. There was practically a small library on that cart. She enjoyed reading as much as the next person, but these volumes didn't exactly scream out _light reading_. 

"They're..books on symbolic anthropology and various iconographies. To help Jemma. She wants to go back, through the portal. She, erm, left a man there." He scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, knowing Jemma was still an uncomfortable topic for Asia, given the events which had occurred before. "Apparently they were quite, erm, close on the other planet. I want to help her, if I can. I think I've figured it out, or at least the first steps."

All Asia could think about was how devastated Bobbi would be. The woman so clearly cared about the redhead, but who was in Jemma's heart? Asia didn't really know, anymore. Jemma hadn't really even spoken to her since she had made it back and recovered. Not even an apology. She had considered approaching the scientist herself, but hadn't gotten around to it just yet. 

"Well, that's good, I suppose," Asia said after a moment of silence. "She's your friend, you should help her." Leo couldn't help but notice how she said 'your,' instead of 'our.' Things clearly weren't mended between the two women quite yet. Did it bother Leo? Of course. But he wasn't going to push things.That was a decision for Asia to make of her own accord.

Before either of them could say anything else, their wristwatches buzzed simultaneously. Asia glanced down at the message. "Huh. Coulson's calling a team meeting. In Conference Room C." She lowered her wrist, looking back towards him. "Did you get the same thing?"

"Yea, me too," He stood up, patting the box of books. "I'm going to put these away, then I'll meet you in there, yea?" He said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. She smiled at him a nodded, leaning in to soft kiss. Her mind, though, was still on what he had said wearlier. What _would_ Bobbi think when she found out? And could they really make it back to a place like that, without getting trapped forever this time? She chewed nervously on the inside of her cheek as she walked briskly down the hall to change into clean clothes.

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"Alright everyone," Coulson said, standing in front of his team of about twenty five individuals. He stood one stair up, so he could see them all, look them all in the eye, so no one was left out. It was a good leadership tactic. Always seemed to work out for him, anyway. "Thank you all for coming. I know you're wondering what this meeting is about, why you were selected. Well, today we are launching Operation Spotlight. The objective is to find out every skeleton in every closet of the ATCU." He let that sink in for a moment. "The last few days have been especially difficult for everyone involved, and what happened to Doctor Garner was, without a doubt, a tragedy. But now we have a unique opportunity.

"Now, we have the chance that may have never been possible before. When we agreed to let the ATCU keep Doctor Garner in stasis, they agreed to take his Shield Containment Module with them. We're going to use this module to gain access to their facility and their information."

"So that brings us to teams. We'll be splitting up in various pairings to make sure we get in and out undetected, as efficiently as possible. Bobbi and Hunter, you'll be going in on the ground," Coulson explained. "I've sent you each a file on the plan, but if adjustments are needed, I trust you to make those decisions. Daisy, Mack, Monroe, you'll play quarterback from Zephyr One."

"May, you'll be leading Extraction," Coulson continued on, when suddenly, May cut him off.

"I'm bringing Lincoln with on this one," she said, expression flat, no emotion there. Asia tensed a little bit at this. May hadn't exactly appreciated Lincoln's take on capturing Doctor Garner...which had involved use of force. Potentially excessive force, depending on how you were looking at it.

"Alright then," Coulson agreed with a nod. "The new guy is going to get a hands on experience with one of the best we have," he tapped onto his tablet for a moment, as if making a note of this addition. "Agent Fitz, you'll be in charge of making sure each team has the tech they need. Agent Simmons, you'll have your team stand by for medical as needed. Let's hope it's not needed.

"And let me make this crystal clear for everyone. I want to know everything. Everything going on inside those walls. I want to know what's in the facility. How many Inhumans they have in stasis, who they are, where they come from. How close they are to their supposed cure. And, of course, what the facility really wants to do with these Inhumans. We aren't going to let the wool be pulled over our eyes with this one. Does everyone understand?" There was a series of corresponding nods and murmurs of agreement. "Great. Then, does anyone have any questions before we wrap this up?" 

"I have one," Daisy spoke up from beside Asia. Asia clenched her left fist slightly, the nails digging in to her palm. She hoped Daisy wasn't about to call Coulson out for some reason. 

"Alright, Agent Johnson. Let's hear it," Coulson replied, clearly not sharing the same concerns as the brunette agent.

"Why are we doing this now? We've been working with them for weeks," Daisy said, earnestly. And, Asia had to admit, that was a good question. There was plenty of time to dig into the ATCU's underbelly before they had gotten so buddy-buddy.

"Because," Coulson replied. "I think the head of the ATCU finally trusts me. I would like that feeling to be mutual, but I'm not going to let it, without thorough vetting." He tucked his tablet under his shoulder, clapping his hands together. "Alright everyone, you know what to do. Let's get to work."


	30. Chapter 30

The plan was set, and it was a good one, as long as they didn't run into anyone they recognized. Coulson would bring Rosalind into their base (which was slightly frightening), and Hunter and Bobbi would slip in under disguise while Daisy, Mack, and Asia monitored from the sky, ready to drop in and aid at a moments notice. It helped that Daisy was feeding Hunter lines, making him seem like he really was from the FBI tasks force sent to investigate a potential security breach. All in all, it was a very good plan, as long as things went right. 

It worked, as expected. Bobbi and Hunter convinced the ATCU employee who had greeted them that there was something in their facility which was causing the alarm and also leaking data from their internal security. Case in point was made by holding up an image of Rosalind's credentials, so easily provided to them by Coulson. Then, Daisy walked Hunter through the correct verbiage, helped him get into the system, and Bobbi made an excuse to take a call while Hunter _worked his magic_. The team in the air made sure every door was open for Bobbi as she made her way deeper and deeper into the heart of the ATCU building.

"Andrew isn't here..." Bobbi's voice came cautiously over the comms. "You're positive we're in the right location?" 

"That's the only one," Asia replied, sharing a concerned gaze with Daisy. "There's no sign of him at all?" They weren't seeing what Bobbi was seeing, so they had no idea what to expect. But they certainly didn't expect what came next.

"Guys, there's no Inhumans here, _at all._ " Bobbi's voice came steadily through to them. "Someone needs to relay that to Coulson, asap. And as far as a cure, it sure doesn't look like they're taking tissue samples. There's nothing to take samples from. There's no signs of the appropriate labwork needed for that kind of testing, not here anyway."

"So if they're not testing for a cure, what are they doing?" Mack asked, leaning forward at his desk, eyes narrowed as he thought deeply about what all these various puzzle pieces could mean.

"Can you guys find anything on medications they've compiled for study?" Bobbi asked after a moment. "Because I can't say I'm positive, but I'm pretty damn certain that I'm looking at a shelf full of fish oil pills." Daisy quickly started running through the database hack, trying to find anything that could be considered helpful.

"Uh, hey, guys?" Hunter's voice broke through their conversation. "It's time to download absolutely everything we can and get the hell out of here." There was a minuscule pause, before he spoke again, "Because Banks and Co. just made their arrival." 

"Copy that," Mack replied, nodding at Asia and Daisy.

Daisy and Asia, meanwhile, were pretty focused on the information they were reading off of Daisy's tablet. 

"Bobbi," Asia said, getting the blonde's attention. "They're not studying any sort of medication in there."

"The opposite, really," Daisy said, finishing her friend's thoughts. "They're administering it." The two women looked at each other, a sort of fear and understanding mirrored on their faces. Daisy turned back to her tablet, continuing to radio off the information. "They're making each employee take mandatory supplements." 

"It claims it's to prevent infection, um, but it doesn't really seem that way based on the data we have here," Asia said with a frown. "To their soldiers, their communication team, their office workers...and...it says, any public witnesses." She shook her head, pressing three fingers to her lips and closing her eyes, thinking on it. 

"They're giving terrigen to as many people as they possibly can," Mack said, the weight sinking heavy on all of their shoulders. That was really it, then. The ATCU's secret plan. 

"They're not trying to cure Inhumans," Asia said quietly, just loud enough for the mics to pick her speech up. 

"They're trying to turn them," Bobbi finished for her, tone just as somber and strained. She stared down at a chest in front of her, inside the lab she had broken in to, looking at the hardened corpses curled inside, thought making her stomach queezy.

"We need to send this to Coulson, _right now_ ," Daisy said urgently, grabbing the tablet and holding it close to her as her fingers flew across the screen, rapidly typing out a message to their boss and firing it away. 

"Guys," Bobbi's voice came through sharply, "Call for extraction. I've got company, and I can't charm my way out of this one." They could tell she was speaking through gritted teeth, and Asia could practically picture the men entering the room to find her.

Moments later, the message came in from Coulson. That, much like they had faced two years ago, the ATCU had a mole. And Rosalind was going to help get their team out, they just needed to send May and Lincoln to the Northwest parking lot to extract Hunter and Bobbi. May docked the jet and the team boarded the bigger plane. Together, they flew back to the base, where they would meet Coulson and Rosalind.

And then. They would figure out what the hell they were going to do next.


	31. Chapter 31

Asia was sitting on the couch with Leo, watching a shitty reality TV show, when the call came. Coulson had been at dinner with Roz, but something had happened, because he needed extraction. There was gunfire involved. The base immediately felt more on edge when the call came through, and Mack was dispatched, headed off to go collect their Director and his girlfriend. Whatever romance had been in their evening, Asia couldn't get back to. She was worried, some part of her anxious self telling her there was something more at play here, something more was wrong. And no matter how much she tried to push it out of her head with the distraction of trashy tv romance, she just couldn't quite get there. 

So when word arrived that they had returned to base, Asia excused herself, walking to the kitchen and break room to get herself a glass of water, so she could watch them arrive. 

But when Coulson walked in, he was alone. There was no sign of Roz trailing along behind him, talking quickly into her phone. No sound of her heels clacking along the concrete floors. And Coulson's purple shirt was coated with blood, which once would have been slick but had no become dry, crusted. Her gut feeling had been right. No one had to say anything to her to tell her that Roz was dead. Asia put her glass back onto the shelf, no longer thirsty. 

Quietly, she made her way back to the bedroom that she and Leo shared, opening the door, relieved to find him still in their bed, no dead, not hurt. That was where her mind always went when things got bad - was he going to be hurt? But no, not this time. This time, he was okay. 

She opened her mouth to speak, when both of their watches buzzed. Leo put down the book he had picked up while she had been gone to check his. "Hmm.." He mused aloud, puzzled. "We're all wanted to meet by Coulson's office. You, me, Daisy, Jemma, and May." He looked up at her, brows knit, "Do you know what this could be about."

Asia swallowed, unsure of what to say, of how to say it. So instead she just shook her head, and took her hand in his when he stood up. Together, they headed down the dim hallways to meet with the rest of their team.

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The Interrogation Room was poorly lit, intentionally so. There was only one steal lamp beside the metal table, and the cool brick walls helped uphold the chilly atmosphere. Still, as many times as Asia had been in this room, it was never like this. She had always been on the other side of the table, never the one being bored down by the heavy gaze of the interrogator. Coulson sat across from her now, wearing a clean suit, eyes cold, asking her about her former friend. 

"When did you first meet him?" Coulson asked her, leaning on his forearms and staring her down. It felt pointless to even respond, she knew he knew the answer already. This was just to establish her baseline, to pick up on her ticks, her traits, to tell when she was withholding the truth. But there was no need for her to withhold, not now, not about Ward.

"We met back in school, at Ops. Neither of us had a good past, though I didn't know exactly what his entailed until later," Asia explained, keeping her arms crossed over her chest, leaning back casually in her chair. There was nothing to hide, not like previous secrets she had held. As Director, he knew all about her previous arrangement with Clint and Natasha, to watch him, to pass them intel as needed. "It was easy to be competitive, easier to become friends so we could best everyone else." 

Coulson nodded along as she spoke, contemplating his next question. "Did he ever reveal any personal details about his past to you during those times?" He asked finally, that steady gaze still upon her.

Asia shrugged, thinking back to it. "Yes, I'd say so. In the sense that any spy would. Enough to understand, not enough to fully know him." That much was true, she certainly would have never guessed Garret had recruited him for Hydra. Nothing he ever said had hinted at that.

"Can you elaborate?" Coulson asked, studying her again, unmoving. It was slightly unnerving the way he watched her, as if he didn't 100% believe what she was saying. 

"We knew we both had siblings," she shrugged, "He told me his parents hadn't been good to him, he knew mine had been murdered. We knew about people we cared about in a romantic way - because you learn to pick up on that body behavior, when you get that close to someone, so it wasn't worth hiding. We knew whenever we had a hard mission - we would go meet each other, whenever we could, grab a drink, talk about the details that we could share. It was all platonic, but it was just as serious as any romantic relationship I've ever had."

"What happened then?" Coulson asked, with a bluntness so sharp it was like a slap to the face. It came at her unexpectedly, but she still held her composure, thinking on what he had asked. 

"Well, there's the obvious idea that he was a double agent this entire time behind our backs. Kind of ruins the whole friendship thing, you know?” Asia shrugged, thinking back on how Ward really did used to be so close to her. How he reacted with as much shock and horror to Garret’s treatment of her when she had been kidnapped, and then...how it all changed. 

“Ward has a problem with connections, they make him feel weak. One thing that he and I can relate on is how we feel things so deeply. More than people in our field ever should,” The brunette finished, pausing for a moment before she added on, “We’re alike in that way, still. Find a weakness of his and you can exploit it.” 

“That’s very insightful, Agent Monroe, thank you,” Coulson nodded, still not taking his gaze from her. “I want to explore another moment with you. You’ve been held captive twice now by Grant Ward, both with similar outcomes, though the influence seemed to vary greatly. Can you delve into these experiences for me a little bit?” 

Asia balked for a moment, letting a slight twitch go in one of her fingers, an accident, a sign of weakness. She hadn’t meant to let people see it, but she just had. What Ward had done to her, it still cut deep. “I guess,” she said finally. “We can do that.” 

“Alright,” Coulson replied with a nod, not indicating he had seen the little twitch of discomfort, but Asia knew better. He wasn’t Director for nothing. “Then tell me about them. About their differences.” 

Asia paused for a moment, thinking, reflecting back. “Well, the first time, it wasn’t his choice. He wasn’t so much Hydra then, as he was an Agent of Garret. So when Garret and his men started taking things too far...” she paused, trying to think of the right words. “When they started torturing me for intel, and doing things..worse than that..Ward still saw me as me. Not a threat, a connection, a team mate, someone who knew him, saw him, and didn’t look away in fear. So he tried to step in, but it wasn’t enough.” 

She took a deep breath, shutting her eyes, and she was back in the dungeon of the prison where Ward had kept her hostage. “The second time, it wasn’t like that. The second time, we had no ties left, no connection. I had become an obstacle in his path that had to be eliminated. Shield had taken away someone he loved, and he wanted vengeance. And he wanted to know his plans wouldn’t be stopped again. What was a good way to do that? Send a message.” 

“So what are you going to do now?” Coulson asked her when she paused again. “To prevent this. To prevent anyone, yourself included, from becoming his prey again?” 

Asia looked down for a moment, at the skin on her hands, small cuts on her fingers that left pale scars. No part of her was safe anymore, and that had been Ward’s doing. She looked up at Coulson, an eery calm settling over her. “I guess I’m going to have to kill him,” she said.

Coulson modded, leaning back in his chair. “Thank you, Agent Monroe. You can go now.” He motioned towards the door, and she heard a small click, the sound of it unlocking. She nodded, standing up to exit, sliding her chair back into place.

When she reached for the door, Coulson stopped her. “And Monroe? Can you let Agent Fitz know he’s up next?” The brunette Agent nodded, a lump forming in her stomach. Turning, she closed the door behind her.


	32. Chapter 32

Asia waited for Leo outside of the interrogation room, rocking back and forth from the balls to pads of her feet, her lower lip stuck nervously between her teeth. She knew how stressful interrogation could be, and it wasn't like Leo had the psychological training to prepare for that sort of thing. So she worried, naturally, about him, about what it might do to him.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when the door finally opened and her boyfriend stepped out, looking a little shaken, but overall okay. "How was it?" She asked him, the second the door was shut and Coulson wouldn't be listening to them in the hall.

"It was fine...I guess," Leo scratched the back of his head. "Talking about Ward...it was hard. Brought back..things?" He looked down at her, brow furrowed, hoping she understood what he was trying to say. And of course, she look up at him with solemn eyes, and nodded. He was so happy she was in his life. How many people could understand him with so few words? He wrapped an arm around her, pressing his lips to her smooth forehead, the chill from her skin tickling his lips. "Thank you," He said to her, grabbing her hand.

"That's what I'm here for," she smiled up at him, squeezing his hand as she linked her fingers through his. 

"I know," he replied, "But I'm grateful all the same. Now, let's get back to watching some trashy, probably fake, romance reality TV, yea?" He grinned at her, as they began to walk along the dim hallways. 

"That sounds good," she said back to him, content with the fact that his hand was in hers, and he was okay. Sitting in bed watching TV with him sounded like the best idea in the world right now. "We can watch some Doctor Who after if you want?"

Leo grinned, glancing at her slightly, shaking his head. "How is it that we stumbled across each other's paths? We were born oceans away from one another, and now here we are." In a surprisingly burst of affection, Asia snuggled herself into his side as they walked along. Leo looked down at her, a smile covering his face. Yea, this night was ending okay.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Asia woke in the morning, Leo was gone. There was a small post it note stuck to the wall above her bed written in his 'doctor's scrawl.' _Headed to the Lab, got an assignment from the boss_. The brunette sighed, opening her side drawer and tucking the post it note inside, along with all the other little slips of paper he had ever left her. He probably didn't know she kept them, but she did it all the same.

She set about the rest of her day as usual, training for a while then hitting the showers. She was just finishing drying off her long, wavy mess of hair when a rapid knocking came from her door. Throwing on a black sweatshirt, she went to the door, pulling it open to find Hunter standing outside.

"Get your gear on, love." He said with a frown, looking clearly flustered. "Boss has a mission for us to do." 

"What's wrong?" Asia asked him, shaking her head. "What's going on that's got you so riled?" He was clearly upset about something, and she wanted to know what before they got deep into this. 

"We're going after Ward," he said, tone flat. "You should get ready." 

The brunette didn't need to hear any more. After all, they had a job to do.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jemma and Fitz were sent to the Distant Star Facility, Mack was interim Director, and Asia was taking the Quinnjet with Coulson, Bobbi, and Hunter. When Asia have met the team in the hangar, she and Coulson didn't exchange any words. They looked at one another, nodded, and understood. This mission was an end to what had been going on for far too long. It was Hunter who eventually filled her in on the plane. They were going to get Ward's brother. But first, apparently, they were going to rob a bank. 

They were just finishing getting suited up, vets strapped on, when the call came. "Yes?" Coulson asked when he got the call. "By who?...Damnit..okay." He hung up, and suddenly hurled the phone towards the back of the plane with such a force that it shattered against the wall and fell to pieces. 

"What is it, Sir," Asia asked as she slung her shotgun over her back. 

"They got Fitz and Simmons," Coulson replied pointedly, looking Asia in the eyes. "Hydra..and Ward." 

Asia felt her stomach suck into her throat, her heart shriveling and hiccuping as her vision went in and out. She looked up at Coulson, swallowing as she nodded. "Then we do this. And we make it work." Coulson nodded back, noticing the hardened glint in her eyes - a familiar one. One he recognized from last year, after Fitz was injured. The look that told him she would do anything to ensure his safety. Yes, Coulson knew that look well.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coulson, Hunter, and Asia burst into the bank, black masks on and shotguns raised. "Hands in the air everyone," Asia shouted out, adopting a mock-Russian accent. "We don't need anyone trying to play hero today." She cocked the shotgun and aimed it at the cashier behind the counter, the one closest to being able to call for help. "Especially not you." 

Coulson disappeared into the back room, and Asia knew exactly where he was going. Ward's younger brother worked here. Part of Asia felt bad, about doing this to Ward. It was only the smallest sliver. But once Coulson had delivered the news to her on the jet, that he had helped capture Leo, all sympathy disappeared. Sure, maybe they both had weak spots that belonged in their siblings. But Ward certainly hadn't held back on making her sister torture her, those flames licking over her own skin. He hadn't cared, hadn't hesitated. So why should they? 

When Coulson came back, dragging a passed out, slumped body behind him, Asia felt like they were getting somewhere. Because this was going to make him hurt. And if Ward wanted to play dirty, two could do that just fine.


	33. Chapter 33

"So you really think he's going to lead us to Ward?" Bobbi asked, peering down at the man in front of them, who was finally starting to wake. Asia looked at him too - it was true that he looked a lot like Ward, albeit his hair was a deep brown instead of black. Their strong jawline was strikingly similar, as was their general stature. 

"I'm pretty confident," Coulson replied with a sharp nod. "I've come to realize that everything he does is just a weird attempt to justify all the things in his past. What a better way to remind him than to bring his past front and center?" Ward's brother looked up at the, unable to speak for the tape that covered his mouth. But his eyes were furrowed in concern and fright. Coulson leaned down and ripped the silver tape off of his mouth.

"W-what is this?" the poor man asked, unable to move because his hands were still tied securely behind the small of his back. "Did..is it my brother? Did he send you?" He was scared, that much was certain. 

"You mean Grant Ward?" Hunter tsked, leaning over on his knees to look at the lad. "Sorry mate, he doesn't even know you're here. Hope you're not hoping for a rescue party."

"I'm sure he'll want to send one once he figures out we've got you though," Asia shrugged, spinning a knife around her ring finger, before glancing down at the poor guy. "Shame." She turned to look at Coulson and shrugged. Coulson pulled a phone out of his pocket, as Hunter leaned over and heaved the man to his feet, shoving him into a seat so he was upright. 

Asia kept her eyes on his brother, spinning the knife round and round, watching his eyes study it, study her, wonder what she was about to do. She heard Coulson making the calls, but didn't quite hear what he was saying until she heard the words, "There's someone here who'd like to say hello." Her eyes flicked up and the knife snapped down, handle into her palm, and she pointed it at him, smirking. 

"That's you, friend," She whispered, nodding towards Coulson and the phone, watching his adams apple bob as he swallowed. She slipped the blade right under his chin, using the angle to tilt it up slightly, grinning. "Smile for the camera," she whispered as she turned to look at Coulson, who flashed the phone towards them. She looked into the lens and smiled, pushing the tip of the knife just slightly further towards his brother's skin, not enough to make him bleed, but enough to put a small indent into his skin. When Coulson took the phone away, Asia sat back up, taking the knife away from his neck. 

Part of her wanted to say sorry, but she didn't.

Couslon muttered one other sentence, then hung up the phone. Simple as that. The bait was set. Bobbi stepped forward and offered Thomas Ward some water.

"Please, please don't kill me," He said, visibly shaking, looking between Bobbi and Asia.

"Believe me when I say, no one wants that," Bobbi said, shaking her head, trying to give him a convincing look of calm. 

"Sorry, m'am, but it's hard to believe that when your..murder weapon over there is pressing a knife to my throat." He exclaimed, finding a strength in his voice, jutting his chin towards Asia. There it was, that similarity to Ward again. It made Asia uncomfortable, to the point where she would have shivered if she didn't have better control over her body.

"Desperate times, and all that," Hunter said with a shrug, putting a reassuring hand on Asia's shoulder. "Your brother, he's a pretty bad guy, ya know?" he said, giving the guy a frown.

"What about you people?? You kidnapped me!" He objected, this time more of the fear tainting his voice.

"Your brother hurt someone I cared about, a lot of people, that we _all_ care about," Coulson gestured at the others in the plane. "And as far as any of us can tell, you're the only person left alive that he really gives a damn about. We need to find him. And you're our key to assuring that." 

Thomas looked down at his lap for a moment, shaking his head, before he slowly looked back up at the lot of them. "Okay. I understand that. But you better end him, when you finally find him." 

The group was silent for a moment, as they all registered what the man had just told them. Asia tilted her head in confusion. "Not gonna lie," Hunter said, "That was about the last thing I expected you to say."

"Grant, he's done this as long as I've known him. He hurts people, and he lies to himself about it so that he can bare it," Thomas explained. "It's a pattern he's kept since we were babies. And it needs to stop. It's...it's what would be best for everyone." It clearly pained him to say this about his own brother, but it had to be said. 

"So everything he's ever said about the sob story childhood - that's all been a load of rubbish then?" Hunter asked, trying to understand the full picture of what they were hearing.

Thomas shrugged. "I'm sure what he told you about our parents was all true. They weren't good to us, but especially not to Ward. They had a lot of their own personal traumas, but they took those out on us."

"Were you and your brothers close then?" Bobbi asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

"I mean, Christian and I..he was a lot older. So we didn't spend as much time together. But Grant? I mean he was my best friend," Thomas shrugged. "He took a lot of shit, for me. Any mistake I made, he said it was his own. To keep our parents' focus on him, and not on me." The man paused for a moment, the memories flashing by his eyes. "And then...he just..didn't."

"When he pushed you down the well?" Coulson asked, probing for the information. They all knew about the well story by now. 

"Yea," Thomas grimaced as he nodded. "Everything was different after that. It was like the guilt weighed so heavy on his shoulders that it was crushing him. And he couldn't admit it, because then it would be true. So instead, he got more protective than ever. He said over and over that he would never let anyone hurt me again.

Asia couldn't bring herself to say anything at all. She didn't know what would come out of her mouth if she opened it.

"So if you were so close as children...did that bond last into childhood? Do you still stay in touch?" Bobbi asked, saying the important questions that were needed. 

Thomas shrugged again. "I mean...Grant was 17 when he burnt our parents' house down. He was taken away at that point, but ever since I've made sure to take a pretty wide birth from wherever he might be." 

"You know, you don't seem much like your brother," Bobbi said, in a comforting tone. "And that's a good thing."

"Well, just because you grow up surrounded by a family of abusive monsters, doesn't mean you become one," Thomas said flatly, sorrow dripping from his every pore. "So whatever you do...please don't hand me over to Grant."

"Well, thanks to Bobbi, we won't have to," Coulson said, nodding at the blonde. 

Bobbi nodded back, before turning to face Thomas again. "While Coulson was on the call, I did a trace to his phone. If we get him on the phone again, we just keep him on the call long enough to get a locked in location."

"Bobbi, you know Ward will never let that happen..." Coulson said with a shake of the head. It was a great idea. But was it realistic? No. 

"Wait!" Thomas cut into the back and forth. "He will if you put me on the phone." He looked up at all of them, and the agents knew he was right.

And as if by some cosmic twist of fate, the phone Coulson had dialed Ward with...it chirped out a peppy ring tone on queue. Coulson looked down at it, as if they didn't already know who was on the other end. With a small shake of his head, Coulson grabbed the knife from his beltloop and cut the ties holding Thomas' hands behind his back. "Here," he said, handing him the phone. "No funny business, or the little brunette will show you how quick she can react." 

Thomas nodded, accepting the still ringing phone. Licking his lips, he looked down, and pressed the little green button.


	34. Chapter 34

Leo Fitz sat alone in a room filled with electronics, towers and screens that sung an electronic tune as they gave off a red hue. The familiar warmth, the humming and buzzing, it should have made him feel comfortable. But it didn't. Because of where he was. Because of who he was with. 

"Alright, Fitz, we're going to have a civilized conversation now, got it?" Ward said, crouching down in front of the scientist. He looked almost the same as Fitz remembered him - except more stubble covered his chin and cheeks. He looked less cleaned up as he did when he was with Shield. Though, Leo supposed, he was probably trying to be a model agent when he was pretending to work for the good guys. 

"Why the hell would I do that?" Leo spat back at him, letting all the anger that had filled him for these past two years come out with venom in his words. He hated Ward - but he also hated that there was a part of him that _wasn't_ filled with hate. There was a part of him that still wished he was wrong. Asia would say it was the good in him, he knew that, but he still hated that part of himself. It made him feel weak.

Ward tsked at him, shaking his head. "Now that's not the attitude my guests should be behaving with. We don't have to act like that Fitz, we really don't. I don't want to have to make things difficult." 

"Do you worst," Fitz said back, putting on a brave face. Really, he wondered what Ward's worst could possibly be. He had already dropped him out of a plane, after all. He had nearly died down there. What was any different from nearly dying in here? At least he could breathe, in this room.

Ward sighed, "I really don't want to have to do that. You know I don't want to hurt you. Or at least, I'd think you would know that. We were friends once." Ward ran a hand through his hair, then looked back at Fitz. "I just need you to tell me how Simmons got back. That's it. And then this whole mess can be done."

"I'm never going to do that," Fitz replied, shaking his head, no, as if the words themselves weren't enough. "You're going to have to figure it out on your own." He looked down at his lap. His legs weren't shaking. He was standing strong. He knew, some way, they would come for him and Simmons. They'd be saved. Asia would get there before anything happened to him. 

Ward sighed. "You really have gotten stubborn, haven't you? That's what hanging around with Monroe will do to you."

" _Don't_ say her name," Fitz spat out, flames of fire heating his words. The thought of Ward being anywhere near her made him feel like he could take on ten men alone, and come out victorious. 

"Huh, touchy subject? She doing okay since I last saw her?" Ward asked, leaning forward as he watched Fitz tug against her restraints. "Here's the thing Fitz. First, you guys are only together because of me. I pushed the two of you to the brink, and look what came of it! A good thing, for a little while. Second, she's not going to save you. Do you understand that? None of them know where you are. She isn't around to drop another little tracking beacon into the ocean to send a super secret emergency rescue team your way. Not this time. This time, it's just you and me. So you might as well start talking." 

"I already told you," Leo said shaking his head, still enraged at his words about Asia. How dare he. How dare he after what he had done to her. "I'm not telling you anything." He took a deep breath, and sat back in his chair, a sense of calm washing over him. He knew deep down that Ward was wrong. The universe might treat the two of them as if they were cursed, but just as strongly as that seemed, he knew that Asia would find him. No matter what, they always found their way back to one another.

Ward leaned back in his chair too, sighing as he mirrored Fitz' pose. "Shame, it really is." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a little silver remote. Leo worried and wondered for a second at what it was. There were so many different devices in this room, that realistically, it could be to anything. "Here's the thing, Fitz. Love? It can be a real damn weakness. I know yours is, at least. And that's why I kept a little something around, just in case this came up. A reminder, of what I already did to your little girlfriend once. And what I'll do again, if she does come to find you, and you haven't given me my answers." He aimed his hand over his left shoulder and pressed a button. 

From behind Ward, a screen hummed to life, a grainy image filling the screen. Ward stood up, sliding his chair back towards the wall. 

"Wait," Leo said, trying to stop him. "What.. what is this?" Around him, more screens glowed with life, black and white images in motion covering them. A faint sound began to grow through the room, too. Giving life to whatever Ward had just pressed play on.

 _"Ward, please, it's me,"_ Fitz recognized her voice the second he heard it, as he saw her, Asia, the woman he loved, strapped to a barbaric looking electrical chair. _"You don't have to do this. I know you don't want to."_ Her voice grew louder, and suddenly, a scream of pain, as an electrical charge buzzed over the speakers.

"Ward...turn that off..." Fitz said quietly, sternly, looking back up at the man he used to call his friend.

"Sorry Fitz, can't hear you." Ward said, as he pressed a button on the remote, turning the volume on his little torture film louder and louder, until Fitz was surrounded by the sound of the woman he loved in agony. "I'll be back in a bit," Ward called over his shoulder as he opened the door to exit the room. "You can spend a little time with Monroe, see if this jogs your memory at all." And the door was shut. And the volume grew louder and louder, until all Leo Fitz could hear was her cries.


	35. Chapter 35

Coulson's plan worked, of course, because it was a damn good plan. As soon as Ward heard his brother's voice on the phone, he couldn't stop talking. After all, they had about fifteen years of lost time to catch up on. It was the perfect plan to pinpoint exactly where Ward was. But Coulson didn't let the conversation go on for much longer. As soon as the call was traced to Ward's exact location, their Director grabbed the phone out of Thomas's hand, and made it very clear to Ward that this was the last time he was going to be chatting with his little brother. Because they were coming to put him down.

The trace on the phone brought them to Southwest England, and it looked like they were at the same castle where they brought Jemma back. Asia remembered it well, the shaking, the old water, the screeching sound that had pierced through her skull like a knife through wet paper. It was clear as to why, and as to why they had gone back to this specific spot, as to why they had taken Jemma and Leo. They were going to open the portal.

Daisy tried texting her, saying that Mack was having her get the team together, the Inhumans. Asia tucked her phone away, leaving the message on read. She didn't have time to think about Daisy's team right now, even if she was supposed to be a part of it. No, she was too busy coming up with her plan. Because she wasn't letting Ward get away, not this time, even if it was to be at her own expense. 

She was standing in the back of the plane, quietly strapping on a parachute backpack, when Bobbi called everyone up to the front. The cams on the aircraft were using heat sensors to get a read inside the castle, where the pit was. They were standing around where the portal should be, and it looked they were preparing for going through. 

"That's Ward," Coulson said, tapping at one heat signature on the screen. Asia wasn't really focused on him, though. She heard Hunter ask Coulson how he could know that that specific blob belonged to Ward, but she couldn't judge, because she knew which one belonged to Leo. She would have known it was him from miles away. 

She took a step back, then another, and Coulson glanced over his shoulder, eyeing the pack, the meeting her gaze. She nodded once, then looked to her left, at the only other parachute left in the plane, then back at Coulson. His lips pressed into a grim line, and he nodded in return. She wasn't going to be alone on this death mission. She was going out of this plane either way, but it was a small comfort to know her Director would have her back.

Asia continued to take steps back towards the end of the ramp, keeping her eye on the button that would open the door, leaving space for her and Coulson to jump. She looked up towards the front of the plane, towards Bobbi and Hunter, eyes still glued to the screen in front of them. They would be mad at her, she knew that much. But it wasn't a choice, she had to do this. Leo would do the same for her, she knew it. It was a leap of faith. 

"It's too late, they jumped in," She heard Hunter say, from up front, and there were several less red forms visible on the heat sensing camera. Coulson turned back to look at Asia, whirling to grab the parachute bag. Asia threw out one of her hands, a bolt of ice firing directly onto the red button, the ramp beginning to open up to the night sky behind her. Coulson walked determinedly to stand beside her. 

Hunter turned, looking at her, wide eyed. "Asia, what do you think you're doing?" He said, looking at her, then Coulson, then back. "Both of you need to back away from there right now." 

Asia shook her head, a look of sadness sliding over her eerily calm face. "I can't do that," She said, glancing out at the open sky behind her. "I have to do this, it's what needs to be done. Once and for all." She had resigned herself to this truth, knowing she could not wavier for a second, or they would pull her back from the edge. 

Suddenly, an explosion came from behind them, rocking the ship, followed by another. "Hydra has missiles locked onto us. We need to move, now," Bobbi shouted, climbing back into the pilot's seat. 

Asia didn't have time to think, barely time to breathe. She turned back around, looking down at the castle below. She could see the open portal through the giant opening in the roof, the space that made the resonating sound that had hurt her so much last time. It was now or never. They had already sent men through, Leo through, and Asia knew they wouldn't keep the portal open for much longer. Her window was closing, rapdily.

There was only one choice. She knew it in her heart, in her mind, in her soul. She had known it since Fury had given her a new assignment, since Coulson had picked her up all those years ago, since she met everyone on the Bus, met the people she now considered to be her closest family. Her choice was Leo. It had always been Leo, and it always would be. They deserved to be with one another, as much as the universe begged to differ. They were like two magnets, inevitably pulling towards one another, despite all odds, all outside forces. They would always find a way back to one another, through any storm, because theirs was a love that was not bound by the constraints of space nor time. Theirs was a love that writers have been trying to put to page for eons. Theirs was a love that can not be put to word, or song, or understanding. It just _was_ , and it always would be.

So, Asia Monroe took one last look at her mentor, her Director, and he nodded at her. Without another thought, she tipped forward, falling gracefully out of the jet, tipping into the inky blackness of the sky, as her body hurtled downward.


	36. Chapter 36

Sky diving never felt like falling to her. It was somewhere in between falling and floating, this peaceful difference. But today, she couldn't even focus on that. All she could focus on was hurtling through space towards the grey portal below her. If they closed it before she got there, she had to be ready. Had to be able to brace her fall with...water. A lot of water. More than she felt like she had on hand. She was going to have to do something, tap into something she hadn't since she had been prisoner. She could feel the Hydra soldiers in the room below her, feel the water, the lifeforce that kept them moving. 

And so, as she hurtled into the room, she flared out her hands, sucking in the water from four men, four armed men in camouflage clothing. And then she was gone, slipping through the portal, hurtling through space to a new dimension, a new planet. She was gone before she could see the wake she had left behind, the four soldiers falling to ground, their bodies husks, disintegrating into ash. 

The sky opened up around her as she hurtled out of a mountain of sand, rocketing into the air. Her arms flailed wildly, and she shot her hands out beneath her, a small slide of water cushioning her fall and bringing her to the ground. And a second later, it was gone, a hiss of evaporation the only sound but the wind around her. It was then she realized how hot it was, how it made her body feel heavy, like lead. Something about this planet...there was so little water here. It was like the planet was sucking the water right out of her. Suddenly, there was another sound, and Coulson flew out of the ground himself. Asia shot her hands up again, trying to create more water to brace his fall, but nothing appeared, no sound, no water, nothing. 

He slammed into the ground, breath heaving out of his chest, as his eyes fluttered shut. Asia scrambled over to him through the sand, hands and knees, tapping her hand against his face. "Coulson, Coulson, wake up." He groaned, and Asia sighed, leaning backwards. It was dark, clouds blocking out whatever sun there might be. She couldn't tell if it were day or night ; everything around her was a hazy blue colour. She took her pistol out of its holster, held onto it, and sat watch. She would wait a little while, see if Coulson woke up, and if not, she'd try and wake him again. Until then, she would sit, taking in everything around them. It was best to learn what this planet had to offer, though it currently didn't appear like much. 

It must have been an hour, maybe a few, when she decided to try and wake him again. Leaning over, she grabbed Coulson by the shoulder and shook him, lightly at first, them with a little more force. "Wake up, Phil, wake up now!" They didn't have a lot of time left, she had to guess, before Hydra completed whatever their end goal was here. And they already had a pretty good head start. Finally, thank god, his eyes blinked open and he inhaled sharply.

"Monroe," He said, squinting at her, as if he had expected someone else. Then, his eyes widened as he noticed the scenery behind her, the multiple moons in the sky, the sand everywhere and the rocks jutting out of the crust like knives. "I'll be damned...we're on Tatooine." Asia shook her head at the reference, standing up and extending a hand down to him.

He took it, standing up and undoing the clasp that held on his backpack, dropping the discarded thing beside her own. No need for them now, not since the dive had been successful. He sighed, looking around them again, at all the dust and sand. "Alright," He said, taking out his pistol and checking that it was ready. "Let's go get the bastard." 

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There were plenty of footprints to follow, all over the sand they trod on. Hydra had wandered everywhere, their combat boots apparent. Asia could also make out the gentle step of Leo's dress shoes. At one point, they stumbled upon a suit jacket laying in the dirt. Asia knew it belonged to Leo, she didn't have to do more than glance at it. Yet, she still picked it up, held it close for a second, before tying it around her waist to give to him later.

She didn't want to think of the worst, so she didn't let herself. He would be alive when she found him. She figured, if he wasn't, she would have felt it by now. She imagined it would feel like losing a part of herself. And she hadn't felt that yet, so she trudged on with an unbreaking determination. 

She wasn't sure what hour it was when the dust started to pick up, but she did remember the moment she could sense other humans nearby. She paused, grabbing Coulson's shoulder beside her. "They're close," was all she said, nodding in the direction, into the dust storm, that she could feel them. The brunette raised her pistol, walking into the cloud of gusting sand, Coulson right behind her. She heard him before she saw him and raised her pistol, aiming to her mark. Coulson took out the two Hydra agents with him, while Asia shot him in the chest, confident he was wearing a bulletproof vest. It would knock him down.

And it did. She marched forward, stepping hard on the right wrist, and he reflexively dropped the pistol he was trying to hold onto. Coulson stood beside her, handgun aimed at Ward's head. Ward looked up at them, surprised. They were definitely the last two people he ever imagined to see here. 

"You'll never find Fitz without me," was the first thing Ward said to them, when he finally got over the surprise of it all. 

"I'm not here for Fitz," Coulson replied with a shrug, "So not really a concern of mine." 

Ward flicked his glance from Coulson over to Asia, then back to his former leader. "You might not be, but I know she is. She wouldn't leave this place without him." 

Asia bent down and grabbed Ward's gun, tucking it into her holster, stepping back and allowing Ward to stand up, hands raised. "You don't know anything about me," she said, aiming her gun at his face. "Leo is smart. He'll find a way to meet us at the rendezvous point." 

Ward stared evenly back at her, shaking his head. "He's going to be dead within the hour, Monroe. You think you can deal with that? The creature that lives here, it can smell blood. Fitz, he's bleeding. He won't stand a chance." 

Asia looked at Coulson, who nodded. Asia, in a split second, pointed her gun down and shot, with precision, the meaty side of Ward's shin, knowing full well it would hurt like a bitch but wouldn't stop him from hobbling around. When he hunched over on reflex to clutch at the bleeding hole, Asia pistol whipped him right across the jaw. "He's not the only one bleeding now," she replied calmly. Ward looked up at her, at the steely gaze she gave him, and he realized he had never seen Asia Monroe like this before. 

"Now that that's taken care of," Coulson said, nodding with his gun for Ward to stand back up straight. "You're going to lead us out." 

 

They followed Ward along the path he walked, listening to what Asia considered to be mad ramblings. "I've been where the two of you are, you know," Ward said after a while. "Filled with hate and the desire for revenge so much that it fueled me, it was practically all I needed to sustain life. But there are other things, like the things I saw today, that give such better sustenance. That are so much more fulfilling." 

Coulson sighed, then twitched his wrist, shooting Ward on the flesh of his arm, just enough to graze. Ward let out a groan, wincing. "I dunno, I'd say that's pretty satisfying. Asia, how'd it feel to shoot him earlier?"

"Pretty damn good," She replied evenly, cocking her head to stare at Ward. "Looking forward to doing it again." 

"Great, now that that's settled," Coulson replied, "Let's keep walking."

"You know," Ward said, shaking his head and staring off at the horizon. "They have it all wrong about this place, it isn't death. It's something else entirely, something beautiful. It has given me a purpose. Malick was right, it was all meant to be. And knowing that the two of you are here, with me, confirms the fact that I am part of a grand plan." He smiled, at both of them.

Asia's brow furrowed. "Sounds like he's lost it," she said flatly, aiming her gun at his forehead. It would be so easy to blast right through. 

"You'll understand someday, Monroe," Ward said, almost wistfully, before he turned back around, carrying on the path they were headed down. Asia grimaced, but followed anyways. She wasn't too sure if he was right in the head, and if he was their lead, that could only mean trouble.


End file.
